Stuck Together
by RainHolly
Summary: Lily and James' hands are stuck together by Lily's friends and the marauders. See how they manage with each other constantly at their side...not that James minds... Read and review!
1. A plan!

**Hey Potterheads! So, my other fanfic got deleted somehow, so I decided to do a little different story. It's my first try as a multi-chapter story, and even though the start's not that good, I'll get better(hopefully!)  
><strong>**Now, on with the first chapter! :D**

* * *

><p>"Lily!" She started walking faster.<br>"Hey, Lily! Slow down!" She only increased her pace and let out a frustrated sigh. Honestly! The boy never gives up!  
>Someone caught her arm and turned her towards him. Said person having messy, jet black hair and hazel eyes. She came face to face with a panting and slightly out of breath James Potter.<p>

"Whoa, Evans! What's the hurry?" James asked, with that infamous smirk plastered on his face.  
>Lily rolled her eyes, and replied sweetly, "Nothing. Just getting away from you."<br>James chuckled, "That's the sarcastic Lily I know and love", came the cheesy reply.

She rolled her eyes again. "Honestly Lils, the way you roll your eyes, they'd be sure to fall off any second now", he said teasingly.  
>She cracked a smile, "And we know who'd be the reason behind it, don't we?"<p>

He grinned, shook his head slightly and said, "McGonagall asked _me_ to tell _you"_, he said emphasizing the "me" and "you", "that we're supposed to meet her in her office for some Head meeting at six."

She groaned. He chuckled.

"What? Our Head Girl isn't interested to attend a boring meeting? Now _that's _new!" James said, appearing to be shocked.  
>She almost rolled her eyes again. Almost.<br>"Be there on time. I know it must be terribly difficult for you but please manage it for once. I'm _not_ attending the boring meeting alone", she said raising a finger threateningly, with narrowed eyes, though you could see the twinkle in them, looking extremely cute; to James anyways. She gave him a last mock glare and hopped off towards the Great hall.

He chuckled, shook his head in amusement and started following her towards the Great hall.

* * *

><p><strong>Lily's POV<strong>

"Hey guys!" I said as I took a seat next to Eva, across from Mary and Eva.

Evanna Hansen, or 'Eva' as she liked to be called, was my best friend. I had met on the fist day itself, when I had walked in her compartment with Se-Snape. I really don't like to think about him so I just won't. Eva and I had quickly struck up a friendship and had spent the entire train ride munching away on chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties, talking about our families, our likes and dislikes and basically everything. Appearance wise, Eva was quite pretty. She had shoulder length light brown hair and deep, gray eyes. She was extremely talkative, just like me, and we had been pretty much inseparable since the very first day.

Mary Macdonald was one of my really good friends. She was short, shorter than me and Eva, with curly, long black hair and dark brown eyes. I and Eva had met Mary during the sorting ceremony. She had a very bubbly personality and had been quick to befriend us.

Isabelle Donaldson, or 'Isa' as we called her, was the fourth member of our group, and yet again, one of my very close friends. She was taller than Mary, but shorter than me and Eva, with knee length platinum blonde hair and lovely blue eyes. Isa had always been a little shy, especially around strangers. We had found her, on our first day, sitting on her bed and looking around somewhat nervously when we approached her. She'd been a little hesitant at first, but slowly she warmed up to us.  
>And the four of us have been inseparable since then.<p>

"Hey Lils! What took you so long?" Mary asked.  
>"Oh, nothing. Had a little…chat with Potter." I said casually.<br>Isa raised her eyebrows, "Chat as in, him asking you out and you hexing him chat or civil chat?"  
>Eva smirked, "Well…Isa, looks like a civil chat for once. Potter seems in a very good mood."<p>

I turned my head to where Eva was looking and saw that James did, indeed appear to be in a very happy mood as he entered the Great hall.  
>"Alright girls?" he asked cheerfully as he passed us.<br>"Just fine James. And yourself?" Eva asked somewhat teasingly.

He grinned and replied, "Simply marvelous. Don't be late for our date Lils." He winked and walked over to his friends. Well, that did the trick. All three girls', and even some fellow classmates' who'd listened to this exchange, jaw dropped.

"WHAT?" All three of them yelled at the same time.

Lily rolled her eyes and replied, "Yea…I kindly consented to accompanying Potter to a meeting with McGonagall this evening. I bet she won't even realize she's being the third wheel!"

We laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>James POV<strong>

"Hey!" I said as I dropped on a seat next to Remus, across from Sirius and Peter.

Sirius Black, or 'Padfoot' as we called him due to his animagus from and his-err-'dog like' character, was my best mate, with shaggy black hair, gray eyes and a 'swoon worthy' smile, as he claimed. I'd met him on the Hogwarts Express on our journey to Hogwarts and we've been best friends ever since.

Remus Lupin, or 'Moony' as we nicknamed him due to his 'furry little problem', was among my best friends. He was tall, with sandy brown hair and light blue eyes. We met him on our way to Hogwarts too, when he asked if he could share our compartment. The three of us had spent the entire train ride eating, talking, and well…mostly eating.

Peter Pettigrew or 'Wormtail' as we named him, owing to his animagus form, was the fourth member of our group. He was small and chubby, with blond hair and brown eyes. He was shy, and often spoke very nervously. People often wondered how he ended up in our group, but we didn't care. He was a loyal and good friend, and that's all that mattered. (**A/N: Okay, I know! But Pettigrew wasn't what he became at that time, I can't exactly go about cursing him now can I? Not that I'd mind though...)**

Thus, the four of us ended up as a group, or the 'marauders' as we liked to call ourselves.

"What took you so long?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of toast and bacon.

"Nothing really, just had a little chat with Lily." I replied as I filled my plate.

Three pair of eyebrows shot up.  
>"Where are the hex marks?" asked Peter.<p>

I rolled my eyes.  
>"So, what did you guys-um-talk about then?" asked Remus.<br>I saw Sirius smirk and open his mouth, most probably with an absolutely lovely and not-at-all-embarrassing comment but I cut him off with a, "Nothing. Just told her about McGonagall's meeting in the evening today. That's all."

Three pairs of disbelieving eyes stared at me.  
>"I don't <em>always<em> ask her out, okay?" I said, a little defensively.  
>"Hmm, Prongs…sure you don't." Remus said amusedly and went back to eating.<p>

I rolled my eyes again. Gits

* * *

><p>It was at about quarter past five in the evening when Lily and Mary descended down the stairs to the common room. They walked over to the girls and marauders who sat by the fire. Mary joined them but Lily looked at her watch and said, "Come on Potter. Meeting starts in fifteen minutes. Better not make her wait." Anyone could tell that she didn't sound particularly excited.<p>

James hopped off the couch, muttered a "See you lot later", and extended his arm towards her.  
>"Shall we?"<p>

She simply rolled her eyes and started walking, but a small smile was forming on her lips.  
>James grinned and followed her out of the portrait hole.<p>

"They seem to be getting along better, don't they?" Isa asked.

"Yea, they do. Lily's warming up to him." Remus replied.

A few minutes passed by in silence.

They looked at Sirius who had, uncharacteristically, not spoken anything for the past few minutes. He was stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"You know what they need? They need to spend more time together."

Everyone looked astonished. Eva was the first to speak.  
>"Wow Sirius. That was actually right. Who knew something like that would come out of your mouth?"<p>

But Sirius wasn't listening. He suddenly looked like a child who was told that Christmas would come early.

He rubbed his hands together and said excitedly, "I have a plan!"

"And what is this brilliant plan of yours?" Mary asked.

"We'll stick them together!"

He was met by six pairs of confused eyes.

"As in, stick their hands together by some sort of charm. I'm sure Moony will find something-" He was cut off by an annoyed "Hey!" but he waved it away and continued- "They'll be forced to spend time together. And they'll fall in love, and get married and make me best man!" Sirius said excitedly,wiping away a fake tear.

"Padfoot…I'm not sure. I mean, it could go horribly wrong…" Remus said uncertainly.  
>"Of course it won't Moony! It'll be great. And they'll thank me for it one day!" Sirius insisted.<p>

The rest of them looked at each other warily.  
>This could go wrong…<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So...like it? Hate it? Please let me know!  
>Butterbeer from me to all those who review! :D<br>Cheers,  
>RainHolly<strong>

_**P.s. I wasn't joking about the Butterbeer... xD**_


	2. Hand in hand

They reached McGonagall's office, both slightly out of breath.

"Phew! That took long. There really _are_ too many staircases!" James said.  
>Lily rolled her eyes. "Happy realization, Potter."<p>

James knocked…there was no response. He knocked again…no sound.  
>He rapped the door again; once, twice, thrice…<p>

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Potter! You were supposed to knock _once,_ not make a bloody melody!" Lily whispered frantically.

He smiled cheekily and said, "But one knock is boooring!"

Lily shook her head, and despite herself, she smiled…only slightly.  
>She looked at him and caught his gaze. Their eyes locked for a moment when suddenly-<p>

_BOOM!  
><em>  
>The door banged open to reveal an irate looking Professor McGonagall.<p>

"Evening Professor!" James said cheerfully.

"Good evening, Mr. Potter. I think it would be pointless to ask if you were the one kind enough to announce your presence by producing a symphony." McGonagall said, giving her infamous stern look.

James smiled charmingly, "Knew you'd like it Professor!"

McGonagall massaged her temples wearily and said, "Please come in."

They entered and James shot Lily a smug look, wagging his eyebrows, both at the same time.  
>Lily almost burst out laughing. Almost.<p>

They sat down and looked at McGonagall expectantly. She started speaking briskly.

"Good evening to both of you. Now, Professor Dumbledore has asked me to inform you, that this year we will be holding a Winter Ball, precisely a week from today-" She was cut off by James.

"A Ball…? Why?" He asked dumbly.

"Professor Dumbledore thinks it would be a good idea to, as he says, 'brighten up' the atmosphere", she replied shortly. "Coming back to the topic, you two will be responsible for arranging this Ball. Notices should be put up today. Also, as Heads the two of you will be expected to open the Ball-" This time she was cut off by Lily.

"Open the Ball? You mean, with a dance?"

McGonagall nodded, looking somewhat amused. "Yes Miss Evans, with a dance."

"Honestly, Professor! I-"

"No buts Miss Evans. You will do as you are expected."

"But Professor! I can't _dance! _I _can't_ dance! _I_ can't dance!" James said frantically.

McGonagall looked quite amused now. One could even go as far as saying that she was rather enjoying this. She raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly, causing James' ears to turn pink.

"I'm sorry-" though she did not look sorry in the slightest- "but this is final. You shall do as Professor Dumbledore has proposed. Arrange _and_ open the Ball."

Lily and James looked at each other.

* * *

><p>"Moony! This is it! I've found it! It's the perfect spell!" Sirius said excitedly.<p>

The marauders and the girls had been in the library, searching for a book with the required spell that would assist them with their-um-'plan of action', for the past two hours.

Remus walked over to Sirius, took the book from his hand and started reading over the passage that Sirius had been pointing at.

After a minute Remus looked up and despite himself, he grinned.

"That's actually just what we needed Padfoot. Wow, you've done _two_ smart things in a day! You're outdoing yourself, mate!"

Sirius stuck out his tongue childishly.

"Now, if you people are done making fun of my-handsome-self-" everyone rolled their eyes- "I think we should get started! What about the spell Moony?"

"Well…it_ is_ a complex one…but I suppose we can manage it." He replied, reading over the incantation.

Sirius grinned. "Great! Now all we need to do is get those two here!"

"Um…why do we need to get them here?" Eva asked.

"Because LilyFlower won't be able to yell at me in the library." Sirius said simply.

Mary rolled her eyes and said, "I'll get those two. You be ready with the spell."

* * *

><p>James and Lily exited McGonagall's office, thoroughly exhausted and tired.<p>

They started walking towards the common room.

"I don't like to slow dance! And now, not only am I forced to do it, but do it in front of the whole school! Great!" Lily said sullenly.

"You don't _like_ to slow dance. I don't _know_how to bloody slow dance." James replied, cross.

But then he smirked and said slyly, "But of course, you could always teach me…"

"Don't push it Potter!" Lily warned, though a ghost of a smile was starting to creep up on her face.

James grinned, and they started walking towards the common room in silence.  
>It wasn't an uncomfortable silence.<p>

They had reached about half the way when Mary came rushing towards them, panting.

"Hey guys! How was your meeting?" she asked as she fell into step with them.

"Nothing great…just the usual. What've you guys been doing?" Lily asked.

"Oh, we've been in the library."  
>James arched an eyebrow, "Sirius too?"<p>

Mary smirked, "Yes, Sirius too. Uh-Remus and Isa had to look up for some information for their Herbology assignment, and since we didn't have anything else to do, we joined them."

"Everyone still there?" Lily asked.

"Yea, I came to get you guys." Mary replied easily.

"Oh, okay then." James said, and he and Lily started following Mary towards the library.

Mary smirked inwardly. 'That was smooth. They don't suspect a thing yet!' she thought.

* * *

><p>"Moony!" Sirius whispered, "Have you got it yet?"<p>

"Well,I think…I mean, I _can_do it, but I'm not sure how well…" Remus said doubtfully.

"You'll do it Moony!" Peter said encouragingly.

Remus still looked slightly apprehensive.

"Don't worry, Remus. You're the best in Charms among us, after Lily that is, but she's not here right now, and anyways, we have to do the spell on_ her_ only so… You'll do it! I'm sure." Isa reassured him, smiling.

Remus looked at her and smiled, "Thanks."

She smiled back, a little shyly, "No problem."

Sirius and Eva exchanged knowing looks.

The door of the library opened to reveal Mary, Lily and James.

Sirius waved frantically at Remus, who still had his eyes locked with Isa's.

"Oi, lovebirds! They're here! Hurry up!" Sirius whispered urgently, though he smirked when he saw both their faces heat up.

Remus turned to glare at Sirius, but his eyes widened when he saw Lily and James, along with Mary, making their way towards them. Thankfully, they hadn't noticed them yet.

All five of them ducked and walked over to hide themselves behind a shelf at their right.

"Oh, damn. I think I forgot my wand back their in the left wing. I'll just be back." Mary said and rushed out of sight.

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Where are they?" he asked Lily.

"I dunno. Somewhere about, maybe…" she trailed off.

Remus raised his wand towards the pair, and Sirius gave him a 'thumbs up', nodding his head vigorously. Remus smiled amusedly before turning, once again towards James and Lily.

He pointed his wand from behind the shelf, took a deep breath and said, "Haerent induo!"

A beam of red light shot out from the tip of his wand, straight at the pair.

Lily and James fell back from the sheer force of the spell and groaned.

They both had a _very_ good idea as to who was behind this.

"Alright guys, prank's over! Come out you lot!" James said sourly.

Lily groaned. She was already tired and _this_ hadn't helped at all. Oh, these six will be dead!

James was rubbing his back sorely, but Lily was getting more annoyed by the second and made to get up, but was yanked down as her hand was attached to something. Something warm, calloused, and-

"Potter! Get your hand off of mine!" Lily said angrily.

James looked down at their intertwined hands confusedly.

"Lily, I'm not holding onto your hand. Not that I mind or anything…" he trailed off.

Lily growled at him, and made to get up. He followed suit.

They got up with a bit of difficulty. Once they were in a standing position, Lily tried once again, to yank her hand away from his, but to no avail.

"Potter, this is _not_ funny! Let me go, _now!_" Lily said dangerously.

"Calm down Lily. I'm not doing _anything!_ Okay wait,, so you try and pull your hand in your direction and I'll do in mine. Ready? One, two-"

They pulled again. No use, their hands were still clasped firmly in each others'.

"Alright Potter, out with it! You asked your friends to do this, didn't you?"

He stared at her disbelievingly," Honestly Lily! You _still_ think I'm behind this? I was with you all evening-" She opened her mouth but he cut her off-"_And_ in case you didn't notice, your friends are on this too! Mary was the one who brought us here."

Lily shut her mouth and grudgingly agreed with him.

Her eyes flashed dangerously as she looked around.

"Out!" she hollered.

"Shh!" reprimanded the librarian with narrowed eyes, clutching a book to her chest and making her way towards the left wing.

Both James and Lily rolled their eyes.

"Aw, look guys! They've started to act together! It's definitely working!" came Sirius' voice.

The marauders and the girls slowly came out from behind the shelf, and a sheepish looking Mary came from somewhere on their left. Lily stared daggers at them.

"Alright people, you've had your fun. Remove this spell…_now!"_ Lily said murderously.

Sirius smirked inwardly and put on an innocent face.

Remus spoke. "Well-Lily-you see, the thing is that we don't exactly know the counter curse…_yet!"_ he added hurriedly at the look of horror on Lily's face.

"Come on Lils! It's for you own good. You'll see." Eva said, but cowered under Lily's piercing glare.

James was finding it difficult to stop the grin that was desperately trying to from on his face.

"So…you guys mean to say that we're stuck together, and you don't know the counter-spell, and it could take hours, days, weeks, and months-"

"Shut it, Potter!" Lily barked.

Sirius and the rest of them smirked.

* * *

><p>They reached the common room which was, thankfully, empty.<br>Lily sighed with relief. What would people say when they saw her and Potter suddenly holding hands!

Sirius made a big show yawning, and then stretching out he said,  
>"Well, I'm tired. Come on guys, off to bed!"<p>

Lily rolled her eyes. So much for being subtle.

Everyone, excluding James and Lily that is, made their way to their dormitories…or pretended to anyways.

Lily and James were standing awkwardly, still in the same position.

James cleared his throat, "Looks like we'll have to sleep down here…"

Lily groaned. James sighed.

"Um…Lily, would you mind conjuring sleeping bags, my wand hand is kind of attached to your wonderful, soft one-"

"Potter!" Lily warned.

He help up his hands in surrender…well, one anyways.

She sighed and muttered a spell that made two sleeping bags appear right in front of the fire.

They walked there quietly, both too tired of speak, and got in their sleeping bags.

As they lay down, James cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "Well, good night Lily."

"Night, Potter"

"It's James"

"What?"

"Well, it _is_ my name, and if we're going to be stuck together, you might as well use it yea?"

She rolled her eyes, but smiled slightly.

"G'night James"

She sighed. He smiled.

Sirius was the last one to reach his dormitory. Just before entering, he cast one last look towards the now sleeping pair.

"Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Prongs."

* * *

><p><strong>So...here's the second chapter! Like it? Hate it?<br>Let me know! Review! :D  
>Cheers,<br>****RainHolly**

**P.s. The "Butterbeer for all those who review" offer's still on... ;)**


	3. Waking up

"Lily…" James sighed, as he leaned his forehead against hers.

She looked up into his eyes and found herself getting lost in them.

She smiled and pulled him down to her, crashing her lips to his as they moved slowly, rhythmically against each other-

Lily Evans stirred in her sleep, as sunlight flitted through the room.

Slowly, she succumbed to the overwhelming demand of the morning rays to wake her up, but kept her eyes shut…_firmly_. She could feel herself heat up as images of the dream flashed through her mind.

It had felt so…real.

She shivered involuntarily.

It was nothing; just a silly dream…wasn't it? So why could she feel herself heating up more and more by the second as she thought of it.

Her eyes were still closed as she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

'I'll just have to ignore him today…there's _no_ way I can look at him after this dream' she thought.

She was still lost in thought when she felt something gave her hand a little squeeze.  
>It felt good.<p>

She smiled, almost unconsciously.

But that smile slowly turned into a frown as she realized that her hand was wrapped around something.

Something warm, calloused…it felt like-

She cracked open an eyelid dreadfully, just as she felt 'something' stir beside her.

She opened her eyes to see James Potter groggily rubbing his eyes, looking slightly flustered.  
>He removed his hand and looked at her. Her dream flashed through her mind.<p>

Their eyes met.

She screamed.

She wasn't alone.

* * *

><p>James was sitting with Lily under a beech tree by the Black Lake.<p>

His arms were around her, and her head was resting on his shoulder.

It was a beautiful evening. There was a light breeze, causing her hair to blow in front of her face. James reached out gently to push the hair back.

His hand stroked her cheek softly as he looked at her.

Lily looked at him and smiled, and he felt his heart swell. He kept staring at her with a slight smile on his face.

After what seemed like several years he said, "You're the most amazing person I've ever met Lils"

And it was true. With the sun's glow delicately outlining her face; she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Lily reached out and ruffled his hair lightly.

She rested her head on his chest, and his arms snaked around her waist, bringing her close to him.  
>She looked up and met his gaze.<p>

Emerald met Hazel.

She smiled. He grinned.

He cupped his cheek softly and leaned down.

Their lips touched-

James woke up with a jolt, though he kept his eyes firmly closed, not wanting the image to go away. He smiled as the dream flashed through his mind.  
>How he wanted it to be real…<p>

Suddenly, James frowned. Something beside him was moving and his hand seemed to be wrapped around something.

He smiled.

It felt good. He gave it a small squeeze, almost unconsciously.

It was something small, soft, just like-

He opened his eyes slowly, fearfully, hardly breathing.

His eyes were hit by the morning's sunlight, and he squeezed them, rubbing them groggily.

'Something' stirred beside him.

He removed his hand from his eyes and came face to face with the object of his affections, Lily Evans.  
>The previous night's dream flashed through his mind. And then, seeing her so suddenly…<p>

Their eyes met.

He screamed.

He wasn't alone.

* * *

><p>Remus woke up to the sound of a piercing scream.<br>He sighed.

He had a _very_ good idea as to who were the ones who produced it.

He_ also_ had a very good idea as to who was, or rather were, the culprits behind it.

Feeling slightly guilty, he turned to look at Sirius and Peter who were, unsurprisingly, still sleeping.

"Padfoot?"  
>No response.<p>

"Sirius?"  
>He continued sleeping.<p>

"Padfoot, McGonagall's ordered everyone to go on a hunger strike!"

This did the trick. Sirius woke up with a start, and then realizing what just happened, turned slightly red and glared at Remus.

Remus smirked. Sirius groaned.

Remus turned towards Peter.

"Wormtail?"  
>Silence.<p>

"Peter?"  
>He could have been dead.<p>

"Wormtail, the dormitory's on fire!"

Peter gave a very girlish squeal and jumped out of bed, and then seeing no sign of any apparent danger, gave a very grouchy look to Remus who just smiled back cheekily.

Sirius sniggered. Peter reddened.

"Glad you two are up" Remus remarked dryly. "I think we should go check on Prongs an-"

His sentence was left unfinished as Sirius suddenly jumped out of bed looking very excited.

"Ooh, Prongs and LilyFlower! How could I forget?" he said excitedly, and he started to get ready.

Remus and Peter got up too, and started making their way towards the cupboard and bathroom respectively.

"Maybe we could sneak in on them…I wonder if they're awake…" Sirius mused.

"Oh, I've absolutely _no_ doubts about the fact that they are both thoroughly awake." Remus commented dryly.

Sirius only nodded absently his head in response, his attention having been diverted to flattening his hair.

* * *

><p>"What the hell? Just <em>what<em> are you doing in the girl's dormitory, Potter?" Lily screeched.

"_I'm_ not in the girls' dormitory Lily! _You_ are in the boys' dormitory!" James said.

"What nonsense? Why in Merlin's most _baggy_ underpants' name will I be in the boys' dormitory?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Well, how am I supposed to know? And this doesn't even _look_ like the girls' dormitory Lily." James replied.

"Well, it most _certainly_ doesn't look like the boys' dormitory either!" she said adamantly.

"Uh…I don't think it particularly looks like _any_ dorm at all…" he trailed off uncertainly.

They both looked at each other, and then rolling their eyes at their own foolishness, looked around themselves.

They were in the common room…but why were they in the common room?

And then it hit them. Yesterday's events came flooding back as they looked at each, horror and excitement clouding their expressions.

It wasn't very hard to tell whose face mirrored which expression.

She groaned. He grinned.

"Oh right, hands stuck." James said, though he didn't sound particularly annoyed.

She huffed. He smiled.

'She looks really cute when she does that.' James thought.

"What are you smiling about Potter?" Lily asked grouchily.

"You look cute when you're angry" he said honestly.

Lily turned slightly red and tried to get up…tried being the keyword here.  
>Well…as expected, it wasn't very successful.<p>

She fell back down with a thud. And what was more, she'd fallen, quite ungracefully, straight on top of James.  
>He caught hold of her waist to steady her.<p>

They stayed in that position for a moment when Lily suddenly realized just _how_ close she was to him.

"I told you you'd fall for me one day" he whispered, only partially joking. His hot breath tickled her neck and sent shivers down her spine. She felt a blush creep up her neck involuntarily.

She caught hold of his arms and tried to push herself off of him. He felt his arm which was in contact with her skin burn, leaving a tingling sensation. Goosebumps erupted on his skin and he closed his eyes briefly.

Someone from behind them cleared their throat meaningfully.

Both whipped their heads around to see their friends giving them huge grins.

Oh, the audacity!

Sirius looked at them slyly and said, "Glad you see that you two are…mating."

James and Lily got up from this position with a bit of difficulty, their faces on fire.

There was an awkward silence for a moment when suddenly, Sirius's stomach gave a loud rumble.

Everyone laughed, the previous tension dissipating, causing Sirius to turn slightly red.

"I'm hungry!" he defended himself.

"Tell us something new Padfoot." James joked.

This was followed by another round of chuckles. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"_If_ you people are done, I'll be going for breakfast."  
>With that he made his way out of the portrait hole haughtily, looking very much like a diseased duck.<p>

"Let's go guys, before the kid gets lost." Eva said rolling her eyes, and started making her way out.

"See you two in a bit." Peter said as the rest of them started moving out too.

Remus helped Isa though the portrait hole and she smiled at him.

Mary gave James and Lily a knowing look and followed after the rest.

Predictably, Lily and James were left alone in the common room.

"Um…what do we do about our clothes?" James asked hesitantly.

"Well, I know a spell that would-well-clean us and one that would change our clothes and all…but we'll have to go and find out some spells to-um-help us with the rest of the... issues." Lily replied slowly.

She shrugged. He sighed.

"Alright then…go on" he said, indicating with his free hand for her to do the required spells.

She pointed her wand at him and said, "Mundare Nobis!"  
>He felt a sudden rush in his body, a cooling sensation; rejuvenating him.<p>

This time, a look of concentration set over her face as she waved her wand in a complex manner and said, "Mutare Vestimentum!"

He looked down to see that his casual clothes had been transformed neatly into their school uniform.

"That looks difficult. Where did you learn it from?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, just came across it randomly last year while finishing the Charm's essay. It was in the book I had taken for reference." Lily said.

"Well, it's brilliant. You'll have to teach me that one." James said.

She smiled. He grinned.

She pointed her wand at her and repeated the incantations, changing her clothes to their uniform.

"Shall we?" James asked as they made their way out of the portrait hole.

She rolled her eyes in response but let him help her through the portrait hole anyways.

* * *

><p>"Where in Merlin's name <em>are <em>they?" Eva asked, looking towards the entrance of the Great hall.

"Well, they'll be here any moment I guess." Remus said thoughtfully.

"But it's been quite some time Moony, should we go and check on them?" Peter asked, always the nervous one.

"Nah, of course they'll take some time. I mean, they'd have to change…" Remus replied, munching on his toast.

Five pairs of eyes stared at him and slowly, a smirk etched itself across each face.

"No wonder they're taking so much time." Sirius said smirking, drowning his goblet of pumpkin juice in one go, spilling some of it on his lap.

Everyone groaned

"Sorry to dishearten you mate, but I'm sure Lily knows certain spells that would help them in their…situation.

"How do you know?" Isa asked.

"We found the spells while working on an essay last year." Remus replied casually.

"But…oh darn it. And I'd though… This would have been fun." Sirius said pouting.

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Well, don't worry Sirius. You'll still get to see the reaction of the entire school when those two enter." Mary said, with a slightly evil grin.

Sirius brightened up at this.

"You're all actually rather enjoying this aren't you?" Remus asked incredulously.

They just grinned goofily in return.

He shook his head, but couldn't stop a small smile from gracing his lips.

* * *

><p>"Potter, I've changed my mind! I'm not going in there!" Lily said pulling back adamantly, just as they were about to enter the Great Hall.<p>

James rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on Lily, I'm hungry!"

"Well, let's just go and eat in the kitchens then. But there is no way; absolutely _no_ way I'm going in there like this!" Lily said, yanking up their intertwined hands.

"Come on, Lily. Please?"

"No"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Please, LilyFlower?"

She only glared at him in response.

James stomach gave a loud rumble and he sighed.

"Lily, I swear, Godric Gryffindor would be slamming his head in his grave right now because of you!" James said, trying desperately not to laugh.

Well, that did the trick. Lily narrowed her eyes at him, in her same adorable way, according to him anyways, and barged into the Great Hall with him in tow.

Their entrance was met with an absolutely shocked silence. Every single eye was on them.  
>Even some of the teachers were staring at them with hanging jaws.<p>

'Don't they have anything else to do?' Lily thought irately as she made her way towards their so-called friends.

She sat down with an annoyed huff and he followed suit.

'They really seem to be in shock. I swear the Great Hall's never been this quiet…' James thought idly as he started piling up his plate with food.

Lily was well aware of everyone's eyes on them and she was getting more annoyed by the second.

And then, after a few moments, she couldn't take it anymore.

"WHAT? What are you all staring at? Yes, we've suddenly decided to hold hands! None of your business! Go back to your eating…_now!"_ she barked.

Immediately, there was a clutter of utensils as everyone started eating hurriedly.  
>No one messed with Lily Evans when she was angry.<p>

Lily stared moodily at her bacon and shoved a piece of toast in her mouth.

James, on the other hand,was having a bit of a difficulty in eating his toast seeing that his right hand was attached to Lily's, and as he'd been dependant on his right hand to feed himself since childhood, it was difficult to do so suddenly with his left one.

He tried to put some porridge in his mouth clumsily. With a bit of an effort he was able to successfully place the spoon in his mouth.

Despite herself, Lily's bitter mood was slowly dissipating as she looked at him in amusement.

"Need any help, James?" she asked teasingly.

He gave her a sly look.  
>"Well, of course I wouldn't mind if you wanted to feed me."<p>

He winked. She smirked.

"Why not…? I don't mind babysitting once in a while."

He stuck out his tongue. She shook her head, though a small smile was threatening to etch across her face.

The rest of the group watched them in silence, giving each other knowing looks.

Not that _their_ exchange had gone unnoticed.

"You know, you guys are not exactly what I'd call…subtle." Lily commented dryly.

"But that's why exactly you love us, isn't it, LilyFlower?" Sirius asked cheekily.

She just rolled her eyes.  
>"Which class do we have first?"<p>

"Uh...DADA…with _Slytherin!"_ Sirius said with disgust evident in his voice, referring to their time table.

Everyone groaned.

"Great…just great! First class in the morning with the worst possible teacher _and_ Slytherin!" Lily said moodily.

James grimaced along with the rest of the group.

He put his arm around her, with _quite_ a bit of difficulty if I may add, and said, "I know. But don't worry Lils, you've still got me!"

"Well…I can't exactly help that now, can I?" she asked, though her eyes were twinkling.

The others grinned.

"Let's just go," he said shaking his head, chuckling slightly.

They got up and started making their way towards the classroom.

James gave Lily's hand a small squeeze and despite herself, she looked at him.

She smiled. He grinned.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So...here it is! Like it? Don't like it? ;)  
>You can always let me know...I welcome criticism just as well!<br>And BTW, the spell "Haerent induo!" is Latin for 'stick the two'...so are the spells in this chapter. :P  
>REVIEW! You'll get Butterbeer! :D<br>Cheers,  
><strong>**RainHolly **


	4. Detention, Yay!

**Chapter** **Four**

**Detention, Yay!**

* * *

><p>The walk to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class was relatively uneventful, excepting the case when a suit of armor had decided to challenge the group.<p>

Sirius, being who he was, had decided to take up the challenge. After about ten minutes of-uh-fierce dueling, McGonagall had arrived on the scene. Needless to say, the eight were told off and bade to class immediately, ignoring the calls of "Hey! You do _not_ leave until you accept defeat, mister!"

This had successfully rendered them late to class. They reached class, panting heavily and out of breath. They halted at the doorway, seeing that the class had already started. Their teacher did _not_ seem to be in a very good mood.

"Ah, so the rest of our students have finally decided to join us," was the remark with which Professor Eleanor GrumblyFace greeted them.

Lily, James, Remus, Isa, Peter, Mary, Eva and Sirius started at the same time.

"Professor, I can explain-"

"Sir, there was a stoppage in the corridor-"

"Sorry Professor, there was some commotion-"

"We're extremely sorry, Sir!"

"We were just coming sir, when-"

"We're just ten minutes late!"

"We were _attacked!"_

"Quiet!" GrumblyFace hollered.

The entire class was looking in confusion, trying to process what the eight had just said.

"That's enough! No excuses! Ten points will be taken from Gryffindor. Get to your seats…_now!"_ he said dangerously.

They walked over to their seats obediently. Just as they were about to take their seats; James and Lily would have to share a desk, owing to their current situation; Professor GrumblyFace snapped,

"Potter and Evans! That'll be another five points from Gryffindor for your public display of affections!"

"But, Professor! Our hands are stuck! You can't-"

"Do not tell me what I can or cannot do, Miss Evans," he cut her off curtly.

James opened his mouth furiously, but Lily squeezed his hand and shook her head. They'd already lost house points, and speaking back would do nothing but get them into more trouble.

"Now…let us begin. As I was saying before we were interrupted, we will be having a practical class today. I will assign the partners and you shall disarm, _only_ disarm, your opponents non-verbally. I am calling out your partners; as and when I call your name, you are to go and begin with the lesson."

"Black and Avery," Sirius smirked over at Avery before sauntering off in his direction, wand at the ready.

"Lupin and Snape," Snape sneered, and started making his over to Remus quietly.

"Hansen and Mulciber,"

"Pettigrew and Wilkes,"

"Donaldson and Lestrange,"

"Macdonald and Black," Bellatrix sneered, which Mary was more than enthusiastic to return.

"And lastly…Evans and Rosier. Seeing as your wand arm is attached to Miss Evans', Mr. Potter, you will not take part in the lesson. Nor will you attempt to help Miss Evans or Mr. Rosier."

James looked murderous. Evan Rosier had a disgustingly obvious crush on Lily, despite her being in Gryffindor, and everyone knew it. James had seen him giving her 'wanting' looks sometimes, and he had to literally be restrained by one of his friends from strangling him.

Rosier, looking like Christmas had come early, made his way over to them, wand already drawn.

"Well well, Evans." James' free hand balled into a fist. "Ready to fight me?" Rosier asked with a suggestive smirk.

"Fight…you? Are you sure you're allowed? Underage dueling isn't allowed, Rosier." Lily spat back, her eyes cold. She hated him as much as James did. And she was finding it increasingly hard to restrain herself after the suggestive looks he gave her.

At some distance, Sirius and Avery were dueling. Well, it was turning out to be more of verbal abusive dueling than non-verbal spell's dueling.

Lily looked over at Eva, who had already disarmed Mulciber, and was smirking triumphantly. Standing a little ahead of her was Isa, who was dueling Lestrange. Suddenly, Bellatrix gave a sharp cry of pain as Mary disarmed her, hitting her inconspicuously with a stinging spell in the process. Lestrange snarled with fury; he was currently dating Bellatrix; and because of that one moment's inattention, his wand had suddenly flown out of his grasp towards Isa. She had successfully disarmed him.

Lily turned back to face her partner.

And then, without warning, before she'd even raised her wand, he pointed it at her and a beam of light shot out, binding her on the spot. Lily stood there, frozen, as Rosier started making his way towards her with a lustful look on his face. Her eyes widened as Rosier raised his hand and moved it across her chin. His hand started drifting southwards when suddenly-

_BOOM!_

He fell back from the force of the punch, to see James, his hand outstretched, looking livid and shaking with fury.

"How _DARE_ you, you bloody scumbag!" He shouted as he marched over to where he was lying, still sprawled across the floor. He gave him a punch, and another, and another after that.

"James! James, stop. Stop it!" Lily said frantically, as she tried to restrain James from blowing another punch at Rosier's stomach. Not that it stopped him.

"I'll bloody kill you!" he said as he aimed another punch at his arm.

Everyone gathered around the now fighting pair, when Remus ran and tried to hold James back. 'Tried' being the keyword here.

"I told you to stay away from her! Don't you _dare_ even get within teen feet distance from her, if you want to keep that bloody empty head of yours attached to you!" James roared.

Lily sighed. "James…just leave it. Please?" she pleaded softly.

James let go of him and stood up, bringing Lily close to him and tightening his grip on her hand. She didn't resist. She was surprised by his reaction, but also touched by it.

Professor GrumblyFace, on the other hand, looked downright furious.

"This is _quite_ enough! I told you Potter, that you were not to partake in the duel. You and Miss Evans will serve detention at seven, tonight. This will be enough for today. Class dismissed."

Everyone began to shuffle out hastily. Professor GrumblyFace wasn't one to be messed with when he was angry. The marauders and the girls, for the first time, walked in silence. James was still seething. Lily sensed his tension and gave his hand a small squeeze. He looked at her and she gave him a tiny smile and shook her head slightly. It was just a small gesture, but enough to make him give her a small smile in return.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was comparatively uneventful. Peter's robe had caught fire while trying to light his cauldron in Potions, which had resulted in him running out of the class, squealing like a child.<p>

Herbology had been quite boring. Well, you wouldn't exactly call studying the properties of the Dragontail plant in detail interesting now, would you? Though, Mary insisted that the class had been rather informative. Herbology was her favorite subject, you see.

Charms had been, by far, the most interesting class…well, according to Lily anyways. They were learning how to conjure non-verbally.

Sirius maintained that Potions had been the most interesting with a significant look at Peter, causing him to turn red.

James still said that Transfiguration had been the most enjoyable class.

Remus and Isa were all for Ancient Runes.

"That's just because you don't really have to work hard for that class, James." Lily pointed out.

"Exactly my point, Lils."

He smirked. She rolled her eyes.

The topic soon shifted from their favorite class to other, more casual, ones.

"So Lily, I heard Petunia got engaged..." Remus started.

She groaned. The girls sniggered.

"Merlin's beard! Don't remind me!"

Remus smirked. "How is Vernon, then?"

"Don't ask," was the simple answer she gave.

"But why…? What's he like?" Sirius asked curiously.

"A whale! A giant, boring, and good for nothing _mustached _human whale!" Lily said disgustedly.

Everyone chuckled.

"Though I have to say, they complement each other well. I mean…she looks like a horse, and he looks like a whale. Bloody hell, he _eats_ like a whale!" They laughed.

"Hmm…I wonder what their child will look like…" James mused with a smirk.

"Oh, a pig…definitely!" Eva said.

"Are they planning on opening a zoo or something?" Mary asked.

Lily shivered. "Oh no…metal images, _mental images!_ For the sake of humanity I hope they don't reproduce!"

Everyone burst out laughing. They continued talking away for some more time until Remus told Lily and James that their detention would start soon. His statement was met with cheerful exclamations.

Nah… just kidding.

"This is _not_ fair!" James moaned.

Lily sighed. "See you guys later."

They got up from the couch and started making their way out of the common room. James helped her through the portrait hole, almost unconsciously…almost. Lily let him help her through the portrait hole, almost unconsciously...almost.

They walked towards Professor GrumblyFace's office in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence.

On reaching his office, James rapped the door.

"Come in," said a voice gruffly.

Lily and James made their way inside, to see the most hideous-uh-decorations adorned in the office. The room was very dimly lit, giving his office a rather sinister look. There were all sorts of objects hung across the room; from detonators to fake skulls. It wasn't a very beautiful sight.

"So, you two will be serving detention in the Herbology class." Lily and James breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just cleaning work. The room's quite a mess, and you two will be cleaning it up in the next two hours."

With that, he exited his office with the two of them in tow. They reached the Herbology classroom and saw that the classroom was indeed, very dirty.

"Off you two go, now. The door will be locked until then next two hours so that you two don't sneak out. Now, wand please."

Lily and James stared at him blankly.

"Oh…did I not mention that you two would be serving the detention without your wands?" he asked with a sneer.

"Very well then, wand please." Lily and James handed over their wands reluctantly. "Your time starts now. Best of luck."

And with one last smug look towards the pair, he went out, closing the door behind him.

They looked around themselves. The chairs and some tables were overturned. There was a greenish substance that was sprawled across the floor, mixed with a bit of yellowish goo! Not a very beautiful sight.

She grimaced. He groaned.

"How in _Godric's_ name are we supposed to clean all of this…_without magic? _James asked incredulously.

"By using a certain 'something' which is the terminal part of the human arm located below the forearm, used for grasping and holding and consisting of the wrist, palm, four fingers, and an opposable thumb…more commonly known as our hand." Lily said dramatically.

James looked at her for a moment.

He burst out laughing. She grinned.

"Come on…" Lily said shaking her head.

They bent and took the two buckets and brooms, kept for them. Grimacing slightly, Lily started mopping the ground, James following suit with just as much enthusiasm. They mopped for some more time when James decided that they had had enough.

"Come on! Let's have a race! I'll do the right half, and you do the left. We'll see who completes first!" James said, looking very much like a child.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Alright, big boy!"

James smiled, pleased. Lily laughed.

And so they swept and mopped the floor for the next hour. They kept talking, however, neither being able to take the boring silence that engulfed the room like a suffocating blanket.

In less than an hour, they had managed to clean almost the entire classroom. Almost.

They were only two feet away, sweeping the floor as quickly as possible. They reached the middle of the classroom more or less at the same time, James only about a millisecond before her.

"Ha! I win!" He grinned like a fool.

Lily almost rolled her eyes…almost.

"Just by one second!"

But James didn't reply. He threw the broom and bucket upwards and leaped, punching the air. Of course he had, very conveniently, forgotten that the floor was still wet. Also, he had, vey conveniently again, forgotten that his hand was attached to Lily's. So of course he had, very conveniently one last time, not thought of the consequences.

Many things happened at the same time.

Lily slipped and fell down with a thud, and before she could even groan in pain, James had fallen right on top of her, not exactly in a very gentle way. Now, that would have _still_ been alright if the bucket James had thrown hadn't displaced a net from the top shelf on the roof (how it reached there they had no idea). That _also_ would have been okay if the net hadn't decided to fall straight on top of the unlucky pair sprawled across the floor, and completely tangle them. It, yet again, wouldn't have been much of an issue if the net hadn't been a special one to capture the wrackspurts flying about in the classroom, and therefore couldn't be removed without the aid of magic.

So, to put it in simple words, they were trapped.

"James! Look what you've done! You heard what Professor GreenGrass had said! How in Merlin's name are we supposed to get out of here?" Lily asked frantically.

"Well…you're supposed to be the smart one!" was his intelligent reply.

"Figures," she muttered darkly.

They were lying in a very uncomfortable position. His head was positioned right on top of hers, and there wasn't even a micrometer's distance between their bodies. Their heart beats were sounding as though they were one, despite the tension that was brewing between the two seventh years.

James' head was carefully tilted slightly upwards so as to not completely fall on Lily's. He didn't want to break into her personal space.

There was an awkward silence that enveloped around them.

After a while Lily sighed.

"James…you can-um-rest you head. It's alright."

"Oh, nah…I'm okay." James said, though it was clear that he was straining his neck muscles a great deal.

"Honestly James, its fine. You'll tire yourself if you remain that way for long." Lily said.

James wriggled slightly and moved downwards; well, as much as the net would allow anyways.

He was now reaching slightly below her neck, not too much. He gently put his head down and breathed a sigh of relief. Lily chuckled quietly.

James smiled and closed his eyes. Their breathing became shallow. Their eyes began to drop. After a while, Lily felt his breathing become more even, and realized that he had fallen asleep. She looked at him.

His face looked quietly content. He had a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Lily smiled. He looked…peaceful. Not really wanting to disturb him, she closed her eyes as well, and was well asleep within a few minutes.

Lily woke up to the sound of someone muttering, "Where _are_ those two? They couldn't have left, the door was locked!"

Lily gently prodded James. He pouted slightly, but otherwise continued sleeping. She nudged him slightly harder this time. He opened his eyes blurrily.

Their eyes met. As if on impulse, James' head inched closer to hers. And despite herself, Lily found herself leaning slightly forward too. Their eyes were still locked with each other's-

"Oh, there you two ar-what in _Merlin's_ name are you two doing?" Professor GrumblyFace asked, with wide eyes.

Lily and James' head snapped towards him as their cheeks flushed heavily.

"Uh…we just slipped, Professor. And then this stupid net thing fell on us and it won't go off!" James said.

Professor GrumblyFace waved his wand and the net flew off of them. They got up with heated faces and turned towards their teacher.

"Honestly, sir. It was a mistake. You had our wands so we couldn't remove the net. And we've done the cleaning anyways." Lily said, trying to convince him.

GrumblyFace sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Off, you two!"

Lily and James were more than happy to comply.

* * *

><p>The walk back to the Heads' common room was very awkward. James kept fidgeting and Lily looked anywhere but him.<p>

When they reached the common room, they found it, surprisingly, empty. They both sighed. Those six were getting predictable.

Lily quietly conjured two sleeping bags and they walked over to them.

"Well, night James," she said as she got inside her sleeping back.

"Uh, yeah…sleep well Lily."

Lily turned around, facing away from James. But James remained in the same position, choosing instead to stare at the back of the redhead in front of him.

He was sure that they had had a moment back there. And if that ruddy teacher hadn't stepped in, Lily might have been facing him right now.

He sighed and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to take over him.

It didn't.

He was unaware of the fact that the redhead beside him was awake too, not being able to sleep either.

She was unaware of the fact that a certain messy haired boy was looking at her with faraway eyes.

And what they both were unaware of, was the fact that the reason they were both awake right now was, unsurprisingly, each other.

After a few minutes, however, Lily's breathing became more even as she finally succumbed to sleep. Her body turned slightly, her hand nudged his face, her fingers pressing his cheek, making him quite uncomfortable. Her body was positioned in a very odd position, and a small frown slowly etched it's way across her face.

James carefully removed her hand from his face, gently brought her body towards him, and put an arm around her protectively.

She sighed. He smiled.

There...much better.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So...here you have, chapter four. I've been rather busy this week, and barely had time to write, which is why I'm not all that happy with this chapter, but then again when am I? :P  
>So, let me know if you liked it or not.<br>BUTTERBEER awaits all those who REVIEW! ;)  
>Cheers,<br>RainHolly **


	5. Truth and Dare and Interesting trips!

**Chapter five**

**Of Truth and Dare and Interesting trips!**

* * *

><p>Lily Evans was feeling content. Like, <em>really<em> content. For some reason unbeknownst to her, she had, for once, awoken in a good mood. Like, _really_ good mood. The previous night's slumber had been very peaceful. Like, _really_ peaceful. Strange, huh?

Her head was resting comfortably on a pillow. Hmm…a rather comfortable pillow. It gave her, oddly enough, a sense of security as it radiated heat…wait a minute. Pillows aren't supposed to give off heat. And they most definitely aren't supposed to move up and down. And there isn't supposed to be a continuous rhythmic sound as though it's someone's heartbeat either…is there?

Her eyes fluttered open and she yawned. She was about to move when she felt a weight on her stomach. Or rather..._someone's_ weight on her was holding her waist…well, holding _her_, to be particular. There was something different about it...how to put it? It was possessive, yet protective. As much as she liked it, she was equally freaked out by it too. She tried to move, but the hold only became stronger. She tried to wriggle out of the grasp again, but a voice from behind her made a sound of protest and held her tighter. She looked down and saw an arm around her middle. It felt…good. It shouldn't…but it did.  
>It did…and that's what freaked her out most.<p>

So, like a calm and rational person, Lily did the first thing that came to her mind.

She elbowed whoever the person behind her was in the stomach.

"Oomph!" came a slightly choked voice from behind her. The grip on her waist relinquished slightly, and she scrambled away from her sleeping bag…well, as much as she could anyways, since her hand was firmly clasped around something.

She heard a groan from behind her and turned quickly.

"I'm _so_ sorry; it's just that-wait a minute…hey! What are you doing here Po-oh? Ah…right, hands still stuck"

"Couldn't have thought of that a minute ago?" James muttered, while massaging his abdomen gingerly.

Lily looked slightly guilty. "I-I'm really sorry. I thought someone was-" she broke off.

James smiled back reassuringly at her. "It's okay, trust me,"

"But what was I supposed to do? I mean…I wake up suddenly and your hand…it just…" she trailed off, cheeks heavily flushed.

James' ears turned pink. "Right…well, it's alright…uh, sorry about that…"

"No don't be sorry!" Lily cut in quickly. On seeing his expression she turned slightly red and continued, "No, I mean…well, it wasn't really your fault…I mean...it wasn't, was it?"

"Of course not!" he said hurriedly.

Lily looked at him skeptically. "No, well…I mean…you were looking uncomfortable so I just turned you around a bit…"

"Oh…well, alright then. And I really am sorry,"

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm used to your violent side, Lils."

She smirked. He grinned.

"I didn't _always_ get violent, okay!"

He scoffed. "Sure you didn't."

"I didn't!" she protested, though her eyes were twinkling lightly.

"Yes, you did."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"No, I didn't!" she continued stubbornly.

"Oh yeah? Then why did I sport a purple-black eye for a week back in fourth year?"

She smirked. "You deserved it."

He looked disbelievingly at her. "All I did was write you a Valentine's poem!"

"More like serenaded in front of the entire school!"

He snickered. "You should have seen your face! It looked as though it was on fire."

She chuckled. "Well, what do you expect, after you proclaim your love for me in front of the entire student body?"

"Just the student body? Professor Dumbledore seemed quite amused too, you know." James said cheekily.

"Yeah, McGonagall seemed fairly amused too, didn't she?"

She winked. He rolled his eyes.

James was about to open her mouth and respond, but they heard someone shuffling down the stairs.

They looked at each other, eyes widening slightly, and got up quickly. Lily waved her wand and the sleeping bags disappeared. Luckily, it was Saturday, so she changed their previous day's clothes into casual, muggle ones.

She changed James' to a sky blue shirt and denim jeans, while she changed hers to a deep green u-neck top with denim capris.

The marauders and the girls stumbled down the staircase. Sirius and Eva were talking loudly about what was better; chocolate frogs or sugar quills.

"Oh _come_ on! Chocolate frogs are _the_ best!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No they're not! Have you even _tried_ a sugar quill? It's just so blood brilliant!" Eva said obviously.

"Whatever! It _may_ be good, but nothing can beat chocolate! Aren't I right, Moony?"

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I have to agree with Padfoot on this one,-" Sirius smiled triumphantly-"_Nothing_ can beat chocolate!"

"That's just because you're _boys!_ Isa likes sugar quills better…don't you Isa?"

Isa nodded, looking somewhat apologetically at Sirius. Sirius stuck out his tongue in response.

"Oh, alright then! Go and side with the quill eating girl!" Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Ignore him, Isa. He hasn't had his medication today."

Remus smirked. Isa laughed. Sirius huffed. Eva grinned. Mary gave Remus and Isa a knowing look. Peter chuckled.

They reached the common room and turned towards them.

"So…you're awake then?" Eva asked.

"Well done captain obvious," Lily and James said together.

"Ah, so you two have started speaking together also, then? What have we missed, eh?" Sirius asked with a wink.

"I don't know when you'll learn the art of subtlety, Sirius." Lily sighed.

"I would…but would you still love me as much as you do now, LilyFlower?"

James glared pointedly at Sirius, and stepped closer to Lily, just as she turned towards him.

Lily rolled her eyes at Sirius, and turned towards James, just as he moved closer to her.

Their eyes locked, and for a moment, there were only the green and hazel irises that looked at each other.

The rest of the group looked at each other.

Lily looked away from him, and faced the rest of their so-called friends, who were still giving each other knowing looks.

"No need to get worked up Prongs. I was just kidding."

Sirius smirked...only slightly. James reddened...only slightly.

"Well…good morning to you guys too," Lily said dryly.

"Didn't we say that?" Remus asked with a little wink.

"Must have escaped your mind." James said, nodding his head in mock understanding.

Everyone chuckled slightly.

"BREAKFAST!" Sirius yelled suddenly.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Remind me to wear earplugs around him from next time," Lily muttered.

"What bugs?" James asked confusedly. '_He looks kind of adorable when he's confused-hey! What are you on about, woman?'_Lily mentally reprimanded herself.

"Earplugs, James. They're used to block"- she pointed towards a currently hyperactive Sirius-"external unpleasant noise."

He laughed. She grinned.

"To breakfast now, kids!" Sirius said, jumping slightly.

Lily rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile fondly at him.

"Alright, then. Let's go, big baby." Lily said.

Sirius whooped, took her arm and started dragging her towards the portrait hole, effectively dragging James along as well. The rest of the group also followed behind.

The rest of the students were more or less already in the Great Hall by the time they arrived. Thankfully, no one started whispering or pointing towards the two. Well, most of them didn't anyways. The first years were still openly gawking at them.

They sat down and, at once, Sirius started filling his plate with food. The rest of them followed suit, but at a considerably slower speed.

James was still having trouble with eating. Well, you can't exactly expect a right-handed person, who'd more or less depended on that particular hand for nearly all his life to do all his work, to start using his left one, for something as important as food, suddenly, can you?

Lily, on the other hand, was having a good time watching him struggle with his fork and bacon. Not that she was the only one, but definitely the most subtle out of their group. Sirius, Mary, Eva and Peter were laughing loudly. Remus and Isa were both chuckling.

"It's nice to know what lovely mates I've got here," James said, with sarcasm practically dripping off his voice.

"We're here for you mate!" Sirius said thumping James on the back, causing his spoon, which he'd balanced with _quite_ a bit of an effort mind you, to drop and the porridge to spill on the table.

James groaned. Sirius laughed.

"Just wait, Padfoot!" James growled.

"And what will you do, Prongs old pal? Ask Lily here to avenge you?"

"You want to try it out, Sirius?" Lily asked sweetly…a little too sweetly.

Sirius cowered slightly, but still winked and said, "Well, looks like Prongs has finally found his knight in shining armor!"

"Shut it, Sirius!" James barked.

Everyone sniggered.

"Oh come ooooon, Prongsie!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Alright, Prongsie-pie."

"Don't call me that either!"

"Fine, Jamesie-poo."

"I'm warning you, Padfoot!"

"Well, then what am i supposed to call you Prongsiekins?"

"Right now, Sirius, I'd rather appreciate it if you don't call me anything at all!"

"Come on, don't be like that Prongsy-wongsy!"

There was silence for a moment, until James spoke, in a completely scandalized tone.

"Prongsy-_wongsy?"_

Everyone burst out laughing.

* * *

><p>After having breakfast, the group decided to sit outside, near the lake. For a while, they sat there, simply watching the Giant Squid coming up and then dipping back again into the lake. Occasionally, it'd drag along a kid too. The first years were looking terrified; the older students were looking rather amused.<p>

"We're playing truth and dare!" Sirius declared.

"And why do you think we'll do as you say?" Mary asked teasingly.

"Because I'm _Sirius_!" he said and winked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't you ever get bored of that pun?"

"Of course not!" he said, scandalized. "It's_ seriously_ funny!"

She shook her head, but let a chuckle escape anyways.

"Alright then!" Sirius said and conjured a bottle. "Moony? Give the marauder rules."

"Marauder rules?" Eva laughed. "You're such kids."

Sirius glared at her briefly, but otherwise payed no attention to what she said and turned towards Remus expectantly.

Remus sighed. Sirius grinned.

"So, here are the marauder rules for playing truth and dare. Whoever the bottle points at when it stops will either have to answer any question put forward-" Sirius cleared his throat meaningfully "-_honestly_, or do any dare as suggested by the players. Got it?"

"What's the difference in your so-called_ marauder rules?_" Eva asked.

"Nothing. Padfoot's idea." Remus said simply.

They all nodded in understanding. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Let's start!"

And so they did. The bottle landed on Remus.

"Truth or dare?" Peter asked.

"Truth," he said.

"Alright, we'll start off easy. Do you like anyone sitting here, you know, _that_ way?"

Remus reddened slight and said, "Yes."

Everyone smirked, except for one person. Said person turning an interesting shade of red.

"On with the game then!" Sirius said.

This time the bottle stopped in front of Eva.

"Truth or dare?" Lily asked with a smirk.

"Dare!" Eva said decidedly.

Sirius scratched his chin thoughtfully, putting on a look of utter concentration, looking so ridiculous that it made him look oddly like Professor Slughorn when he had seen Dominous Belby shove food down his throat during a Slug Club's meeting. Not very attractive, to put it in simple words.

Suddenly he exclaimed, "Got it! Next time you see Slughorn, you'll have to tell him that he looks like an obese, bald old man with absolutely _no_ fashion sense who needs to shave his walrus-like moustache. Oh yeah, you can also add that he needs to stop closing all the buttons on his coat...they seem like they would pop out any second now!"

Eva snickered. "Done!"

"Honestly guys! That's a little hard on him," Lily said. She'd always liked Sluhorn.

"Come on, Lils. It'll be fun!" Sirius said.

"I dunno...I" she said a little uncertainly, though she had already started to smirk slightly.

"And old Sluggy won't mind anyways! You know him," Sirius said.

Lily sighed, "Well...I guess. But nothing more than that!" she added sternly to Eva.

"Cross my heart and swear to the heavens that I'll say nothing more than his immense belly!" Eva winked.

Lily smirked fully now. "You know...you can always add about his stomach usually preceding him when he enters our class..." she said, mocking thoughtfulness.

Everyone burst out laughing. Eva spun the bottle again. It landed in front of Lily.

"Truth or dare?" Isa asked.

"Hmm...well, considering that Sirius is present and knowing fully well the extent to which he could go when it comes to asking questions...I'll say dare."

"Hey!"

James sniggered.

"Okay then, I dare you to speak back to Professor GrumblyFace in our next class." Mary said.

Lily smirked. "I don't mind...he's got it coming anyways. Done!"

"You know Lily...you really aren't like what we-" Remus and James coughed pointedly"-like what _I'd_ thought, honestly, such _kids_ you two are! I'm proud of you!"

"There, Sirius! Something we both agree on!"

She winked. He grinned.

And so they continued. By the time the bottle landed on James, each and every one of them had shared at least one embarrassing moment and agreed to a dare.

"So then, Jamesikins-" said person glared at Sirius who winked back at him"-what do you choose? Truth or dare?

"Why did you always keep on asking Lils out even though you new she'd say no?" Eva asked before James even had a chance to open his mouth.

Almost immediately everyone stopped talking. Sirius and Peter were smirking, Remus and Eva were giving James slightly apologetic looks but at the same time were trying not to laugh, while Peter and Mary were looking genuinely curious.

James and Lily on the other hand, were having a silent competition as to who could turn the deepest shade of red in the least time. James was currently winning...but Lily wasn't too far behind.

Honestly! They could just say _anything_!

"I didn't choose!" James exclaimed, his ears still pink.

"Uh...didn't you?" Mary asked blinking innocently. "But, well...I've asked already, so you'll just have to-"

"That's against the rules!" James protested. "I pick dare!"

"Hmm...alright then," Sirius said, looking suddenly excited. "Hurl a rock at the Giant Squid! And you have to go near him!"

Everyone smirked. They still remembered when a small second year old had thrown a rock at the Giant Squid by mistake...ooh, the Squid hadn't been happy.

"Hey! That's not fair! I'll have to go too! Why should I suffer it's wrath? It's his dare!" Lily said dramatically.

"I'm terribly concerned about you too, Lils." James said dryly.

She smiled cheekily. He rolled his eyes.

"Come on, then. Let's get over with this!" James said.

They got up and started moving towards the lake. Lily was less than enthusiastic to go anywhere near the Squid. She still remembered when he had almost drowned her in their fourth year, and she'd had to stay in the hospital wing for a week. Oh, how she _hated_ it! Madame Strongdrugs, though rather sweet, had an unpleasant knack of keeping anyone with even a slight cold in the hospital wing for hours, or even days on end, until she was satisfied. Lily, as would be obvious by now, hated going anywhere near the place. Her reaction wasn't surprising though; anyone having spent a week in that place with hardly any visitors allowed, and denied to eat _chocolate_ would feel the same way.

They inched nearer to the lake slowly, James picking up a medium sized pebble on the way. They got near enough to the lake, and just when the Giant Squid turned around;

_THUMP!_

The rock hit the Squid neatly in the back; James wasn't a Chaser for no reason, was he?

The Squid turned around angrily, splashing water on the ground in the process.

Lily and James turned around hurriedly. They could hear little splashes coming from the lake towards them, which they could only assume to be that of the Squid.

They started to run away from their spot, but the Squid had finally reached it's destination and had grabbed Lily by the arm and lifted her, quite literally, off her feet.

Lily screamed. James yelled.

The Giant Squid, who had apparently taken offence to the great rock-throwing incident, had thrown Lily, and effectively James along as well, straight into the lake.

James came up after a moment, panting and gasping for air. As he took a few breaths, he noticed that Lily had not resurfaced yet.

James reacted, like any other normal person, in a completely calm way.

"Lils! Lily? Where are you? Merlin, Lily!" he said, panicking.

She came up at that moment, completely out of breath and gasping for breath. James breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damn Squid! Damn water!" A loose strand of hair came in front of her eyes. "Damn hair!"

James chuckled quietly and brought her near him, not that there was much distance between them to begin with, given their hands' state.

He brought up his free hand to her face and gently moved the red lock aside, his hand hesitating slightly, straying just the tiniest of seconds longer.

Lily froze. After a few moments, she looked up at him to see him gazing at her.

And she didn't know what caused her to do it, but as she saw James' head inch the slightest bit closer to her's, she felt her own face move towards him.

Their eyes locked. Hazel stared at emerald.

_SPLASH!_

They started choking almost instantly, as they were drenched, once again, in water. Even though it wasn't humanly, or well...creaturishly possible, the Squid donned on his face an expression which could almost be described as smug.

"Bloody fish!" James muttered, extremely cross. The reason behind his bitter mood wasn't much due to the water that had been unceremoniously splashed on them, but rather because the ruddy Squid had just ruined his and Lily's,well...whatever it was that had just happened.

They swum back to the ground, and James stepped out of the lake, helping Lily out along as well.

When they reached back towards their group, they were all howling with laughter.

"Did you-Did you see it's _face!"_ Sirius managed to wheeze out between bouts of laughter.

"And these two! Merlin!" Eva choked.

They all laughed harder.

Gits.

* * *

><p>Lily and James were on patrol. Saturday or not, they still had to make sure no students were out of bed, lurking about the corridors.<p>

"Let's check the North Tower. You know its some students' favorite spot."

Lily smirked. James laughed.

"Can't imagine why," he winked. "Though…we could always use a little break, Lils," he added, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't push it, James." Lily warned with a smirk.

"Yes ma'am."

And so they continued searching for rule-breakers or random people who had decided to make use of one of the broom cupboards to have a nice snogging session.

"Why do we have to bloody patrol the corridors? I mean, even if anyone _is_ up to something sinister...they'd hardly be waiting to invite us for a cup of tea, will they? What's the point!" James said.

"McGonagall, I should say, finds it particularly amusing to force young, innocent-" James snorted "-students to roam about the entire school at night."

They stopped near a broom cupboard, whose door was slightly ajar, with a dim light coming from inside it.

Curious, they went over to the cupboard and opened it, but it was empty. They stepped inside, and Lily immediately started coughing as dust went down her lungs.

"Are you alright?" James asked concernedly.

"Just dandy!" Lily replied sarcastically, which was followed by another bout of coughing.

James patted her back with his free back gently. She looked up and gave him and smiled…only slightly.

_BANG!_

James and Lily whipped their heads around to see the door of the extremely small broom cupboard being slammed, followed by the sound of someone muttering something. James walked over to the door of the extremely small cupboard and took the handle. It would not budge. Lily took out her wand and muttered "Alohomora", pointing it at the door, but to no avail.

"Alohomora!" No result.

"Alohomora!" Nothing…the door was adamant!

"Aloho-bloody-mora!" she yelled in frustration.

"Ugh! Oh, those six! They're all bloody-"

"How do you know it was them?" James asked.

"Honestly, James! Just _ how_ do you pass in class?" James opened his mouth but Lily cut him off swiftly, "What do you think? Who else would lock us here?"

"Well...you've got a point. I mean, who else would lock us in this extremely small, squishy-" Lily growled slightly. His tone was getting more gleeful as he proceeded with his sentence-"broom cupboard with hardly any space?"

"James-"

"And did I mention that there's hardly any space?"

"_James!"_

"Relax, Lils. They'll come along soon,"

"Oh, I dunno..."

"I mean, they won't starve us!" James said obviously. He waited for a moment and then slowly his eyes grew wide as he stared at Lily.

"You don't think they'll starve us, do you? he asked urgently.

"Honestly, James! What are you-"

"That will _not_ do!"

"Come on, James-"

"They can't do that!"

"Will you listen to me, you stupid-"

"I'm a _growing boy!_ I need my timely nutrition!"

Lily looked at him for a moment.

She burst out laughing. He reddened.

"Alright, I _did not just say that!_ And you _most certainly did __not_ hear that!"

She continued laughing.

"Oh shut it," he mumbled, sitting down on a wooden box, trying to fit his legs in the extremely squishy- '_and small!' James thought to __himself gleefully_- broom cupboard.

She chuckled. "Alright, big boy. No more teasing," she said, sounding as though she was speaking to a five year old.

He rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly anyways and said, "Very funny!"

She grinned. He chuckled.

"And you call me immature!"

"That we do!" she replied as she too, took a seat across from him. They were crammed up in the small cupboard, with their legs touching each other's.

"I can't believe that actually locked us here," he said.

"Can't you? Somehow, I don't find it particularly hard to believe." Lily said dryly.

* * *

><p>"Moony! Did you do it?"<p>

"Yes, Padfo-"

"Did they see you?"

"I don't think-"

"Did you put the locking charm?"

"I_ did-_"

"And what about the-"

"Will you let me _speak_ Padfoot!" Remus cut in exasperatedly.

"Merlin!" he massaged his temples. "I dunno why I even agreed to this!"

"Oh loosen up, Moony! It's not like they'd kill us!"

Sirius' sentence was met with a few moments' tense silence.

"You don't think they'll kill us, do you?" Sirius asked frantically.

Mary opened her mouth but Sirius had started again.

"I mean, we're just _seventeen! _They can't! They won't! They...oh, dammit!"

Eva rolled her eyes. "Not _us,_ mate. But I'm not guaranteeing anything for you!"

"Thanks for the support."

"No problem."

"I really don't think this is a good idea," Isa said anxiously.

"Don't worry Isa. They'll be out in no time!" Mary said.

"They'll only be out when they realize something they never knew about each other!" Isa said.

"Oh, well...yeah. So, it _might_ take a little more than no time..."

* * *

><p>"What would you have answered?" Lily asked quietly, breaking the silence.<p>

"Huh?" James blinked.

"Back there, by the lake...when Mary asked you...what would you have replied?" Lily asked tentatively.

James sighed.

"I...I dunno, really. I mean, honestly? It had all just started as a quest. You were the only one who'd ever rejected me. It just became a sort of...competition you know. To make you go out with me-"

Lily opened her mouth, but James cut her off.

"I know, I know okay. I was a git, and I was completely arrogant and whatnot. I know I shouldn't have done that, and if I could change it, trust me I would." He sighed and continued. "Anyways, that was until fifth year. But when we started with our sixth year, and I saw you helping those three first years from those bloody Slytherins, after you'd broken it with Snape...I-I just...saw you in a completely different light, you know?"

Lily raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I mean...you weren't just that one girl who I couldn't have...you were the one girl I knew I shouldn't have."

Again, Lily opened her mouth but he shushed her.

"Not like that, of course. I mean...you want to know why I never chased you after sixth year?"

Lily nodded slightly. He sighed.

"It was because I didn't deserve you. You...you were just_ perfect_ Lils! And not just your looks, though they most certainly are a contributing factor-"

She chuckled lightly.

"-it was the way you were. The way you'd always stand up for what's right. The way you'd always put others' concern before yours. I just...I knew that you were completely justified in hating me-"

Here Lily cut him quietly.

"I didn't hate you."

"What? Y-ou didn't?" he asked uncertainly.

"Of course I didn't." she answered simply.

"But I thought-"

"You really should stop doing that. Dangerous things happen when you think." Lily said, lightening the mood.

He chuckled. "So I've been told."

She smiled slightly and continued.

"I never hated you. Strongly despised for some time, yes. But hate? That's too strong. I could never hate you. True, you did stupid things, showed off, and were an arrogant git-"

"Geez! Thanks Lils!"

She chuckled before continuing,"-but I could never really hate you, you know. One minute you'd be this complete toerag...and then the ext minute you'd be off helping first years from those two Slytherin gangsters!"

"How do you know about that?" he asked curiously.

"I saw it while returning form the library. I know that you don't like to show off, James. You never once bragged about that incident, or any other for that matter. You'd only do that when I was around...and that was what set me off most of the times."

James sighed. "It's just that...whenever I was around you...my brain seemed to stop functioning. So many guys were after you...I didn't know how to make you notice me. And then I started showing off, hoping that you'd notice me. But that just ticked you off. All those arguments we had...it was the only way to make to talk to me. I know it's completely wrong...and believe me, I never really meant it to happen that way."

Lily looked at him and smiled...only slightly.

"You didn't need to act that way," she said quietly.

James opened his mouth in surprise, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by a loud bang.

They both whipped aroung to see the door of the broom cupboard open.

They looked at each other in confusion, before Lily got up, with James following suit, and stepped out.

"Well...that was strange." Lily said at length. James nodded.

They set off down the corridor again; there was still half an hour left for them to patrol.

They were just crossing the girls bathroom on the second floor when they heard someone wailing. They looked at each other, Lily nodded slightly, and stepped inside the lavitory.

"Who's there?" James asked cautiously.

"Oh, why would you care? Why don't you just leave me here alone, crying and wailing?" came a voice from behind them.

Lily groaned. "Bloody hell! How could I forget? This is _that_ bathroom!" she slapped her hand to her head.

"Uh...what are you talking about Lily?"

"This is Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," she said simply.

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" James asked dubiously.

"I'M MOANING MYRTLE!" shouted a voice, right behind them, hysterically.

James nearly jumped out of his skin. Lily spoke quite almly.

"Hello, Myrtle."

"Ah...so it's you again?" she said, coming into view for the first time.

James gawked at her, until Lily stepped forcefully on his foot, snapping him from his revive.

He cleared his throat, "Well, it's good you see you, Moani-" Lily stepped on his foot again, "-Ow, woman! Uh, I mean, good to see you, Mrytle."

"No, no...go on and call me Moaning Myrtle. Everyone else does."

"I didn't-" James started but was swiftly cut off.

"Of course you didn't!" she thundered, almost crazily. "Neither do all those other students who come in here, look at me, and then laugh at me."

James looked at Lily for some sort of help, but she just shrugged her shoulders apologetically. Myrtle swept towards the door, bolted it and came back, glaring at the two.

"Oh, how they poke fun at me. Here I am, minding my own business and they come alomg and laugh at poor crying, moping, Moaning Myrtle!" she weeped.

"It's not like that, Myrtle." Lilu started hastily, coming to poor James' rescue.

James grinned at her. She smiled back at him.

Suddenly, Myrtle gave a very girlish giggle, sounding, according to Lily anyways, rather pathetic.

"You gave a nice smile." Myrtle said, battling her eyelashes at James.

James shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh...thanks?"

"How nice of you to come and see me," she went on, her previous manner changing completely.

"We just came to see if everything was alright." Lily said, glaring at Myrtle.

James hid a smile. Lily continued,

"You see, we heard a strange sound coming from the bathroom, and as Head students we were supposed to check if everything was alright. You needn't have bothered with us, since we most _certainly_ didn't mean to disturb you, you know. It's not that we tumbled here _on __purpose_ or anything." she finsihed in a single breath.

"Merlin, Lils! Just _how_ much can you speak at once!" James said, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

"Ah, there! You also start!" She glared accusingly at James James before turning towards Myrtle.

"I'm so sick of all the people telling me that I _talk a lot!_ I mean, _everyone_ says I talk a lot! See, practically, you speak a lot when you've got a lot of things riled up inside of you, right? And you just burst out saying everything that you've kept inside of you at the same time to one poor, unsuspecting person. So, how in Merlin's name can they say that _I_ talk a lot? I mean, I don't _keep_ anything riled up inside of me. I'm a very...how do I put it...spontaneous of person. Impulsive. I want to say something, I just say it. I mean, obviously if it's not _too_ insulting or embarassing or indecent. But you get the gist right? So, practically I speak at...well, regular intervals, when I feel like saying something. And that's a human right! Honestly, it gets so frustrating after a while! 'You really talke a lot, Lils,' or 'Just _how_ much do you talk Lily?' Ugh! And what's wrong with talking anyways? You _have_ to exercise your tongue! I mean... there_ are_ other exercises too, but talking...different, isn't it? You tell me Myrtle, do you think I possibly _talk a lot_?"

Silence was what met her speech. James and Myrtle both stared at her.

After a moment, Myrtle swept towards the door, held it open and, in a slightly terrified tone, "You may go."

"Thank you!" Lily said brightly, and she dragged James behind her.

James didn't burst out laughing until they had reached the third floor.

"Merlin Lils! You're-" he managed to choke between bouts of laughter,"-completely crazy!"

Lily chuckled. "So I've been told,"

She winked. He laughed.

"Did you see her face? Merlin! I bet she isn't even used to anyone talking at all, the poor weeping thing. And then you come along, blabbering. Where do you get this from?"

"Excuse me? I don't _get_ it from anyone! It's natural. We all posess it."

"We all, as in?" he asked, smirking slightly.

"All of us from my land." she winked.

"Oh really? Which land do you come from then?" he laughed.

"Crazyland!" she said, beaming proudly. "And don't worry! Considering the way you are...you'll be allowed entry for sure!"

He laughed and shook his head. They started making their way back towards the common room, their patrol time having completed approximately an hour ago. As they were walking...they realized just_ how_ worn out they were right now.

They reached the common room, thoroughly exhausted and tired.

Lily conjured two sleeping backs quietly and they moved over to them, too tired to speak.

As Lily go into her sleeping bag; James having just fallen on his, not bothering to get inside; and as his head hit the pillow, James promptly closed his eyes and sighed.

After a minute or two, Lily heard someone snoring quietly, and turned around to see James, mouth open slightly, sleeping away to glory.

He sighed, causing her to sigh. He looked so...peaceful.

She tried facing the opposite side, but before she could so much as turn around, his right hand caught hold of her left arm and yanked her towards him. Lily stiffened, before gently, trying to untangle her from him. Not that she was successful. James, unconciously of course, tightened his hold on her, neatly tucking her under his arm. She tried to wriggle out, but he held her, unknowingly, possessisevly against him.

He sighed. He wasn't alone.

Her mind drifted back to Myrtle's face, cooing at James. Something churned inside of her, and she had no idea why. She tried to think as to why she'd been behaving oddly lately, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't for the world of her fanthom why she felt something inside of her boiling at she thought of Myrtle's obvious flirting.

'_She's a ghost for Merlin's sake!' she thought incredulously._

She wondered vaguely if she was on drugs...

He snuggled her to him, burying his face in the crook of her neck. They were lying, with his left arm around her, holding her tightly against him, and their hands still interlaced between them.

She couldn't possibly explain what had caused her to do what she did next.

Gently, she placed her left hand on his chest, listening to the regular and rhythmic heartbeat, enjoying the heat and comfort it was giving her, and closed her eyes.

She smiled. She wasn't alone.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright, so I have _no _idea if you guys liked the fifth chapter or not. It's my longest update yet, and believe me, the most difficult one too. School's catching up, and very conveniently, my parents nearly banned me from writing. So I've pretty much been doing this work, hiding from my parents. Not that easy! ;)**

**Anyways...It'd been a little long so...here it is!**  
><strong>ALL reviewers get BUTTERBEER! Don't forget that!<strong>

**It might take you about a minute or two, typing out how you felt the chapter was, but it's rather encouraging for me, considering that I'm a new writer!  
>And the Butterbeer, o'course! ;)<strong>

**Cheers,  
>RainHolly<strong>

**P.s. I wonder if the reviewers want some cookies along with the Butterbeer too...? ;) **


	6. Hogsmeade Trips and Bathroom Troubles

**Chapter six**

**Of Bathroom predicaments, Hogsmeade trips and Centaurs**

* * *

><p>"Lily?"<p>

"Hmm?" she replied drowsily.

"Lils? Get up," a voice coaxed her gently.

"Mmm..."

"Come on, Lily. Time to wake up!" An arm rubbed soothingly on her shoulder and she sighed in content.

"Wakey wakey Lilybear!"

"Hmm...not now. Maybe later." Lily muttered.

"Come on, Lils. We have to get up now," James said softly, still massaging her shoulders gently.

"No!" she said stubbornly.

"LilyFlower!"

"Come back tomorrow," she whispered, snuggling into James' shirt, almost inaudibly.

James chuckled. "Come on, Lils."

"Shh," she said sleepily. "Penguins...tap-dancing."

James smiled, amused. "Really?"

"Hmm...and the frog...singing competition...qualified for the second round," she went on. She mumbled something which sounded oddly like a slightly muffled 'It's doing well' and smiled, as though satisfied.

James laughed, amusement and fondness evident on his face, as he caressed her cheek gently.

"Rise and shine, Flower," he said and moved back slightly to allow her some space to get up.

She made a sound of protest and snuggled more comfortably in his shirt.

She sighed. He smiled.

James ran a finger lightly through her hair and gently caressed the fiery red locks, looking at her sleeping form. Her hair was completely tangled and spread about messily. Her mouth was hanging open slightly, and one eyebrow was raised funnily.  
>She was still the most beautiful person he'd ever seen.<p>

He stroked her cheek softly for a moment, and then prodded her gently.

"You need to get up now, Lils."

"Not now...too early...go away," she mumbled unintelligibly, pouting slightly.

"But it's Sunday!"

"But I don't want to!"

"_And_ it's our Hogsmeade trip today! Hurry up or we'll be late!"

Not that this provoked any sort of reaction from the still sleeping seventeen year old red-head witch.

James leaned down, so much that he could feel her warm breath on his face sending tingles down his spine, and murmured her name softly. Her eyelids fluttered open instantly, as she looked around her. Well, there was only one thing she could see, right above her, staring her down.

"James! What the hell are you doin-oh. Right...hands...still stuck...yea," She could feel her face getting hotter by the second, as the events of yesterday night flashed through her mind. She couldn't, for the life of her, explain her actions. But then again, she reasoned with her herself, what _was_ she to do when the boy was practically straddling her? I mean, it was totally and _completely_ natural for her to do that, wasn't it? '_I mean, what _could_ have I done? I just...rested my head on his shoulder which just _happens_ to make a comfortable pillow! Psh!'_

She was still feeling apprehensive, though. Clearly, there was something wrong with her. There had to be! James, oblivious to her internal batte with herself, looked at her.

"Well well, someone's finally decided to join those awake, huh?"

He grinned. She rolled her eyes.

"What time is it?"

"Uh...about ten thirt-Lily?"

"What?" she all but yelped. "Why didn't you wake me up before?"

He put his left hand above his heart and said solemnly, "I tried my very best."

He winked. She chuckled.

"Let's get ready," she said and made to get up.

They got up with some difficulty and Lily, still feeling awkward about the position in which she'd awoken this morning, started brushing some imaginary dirt off her shirt. She looked over and James, who seemed perfect at ease, content even, and felt her cheeks get slightly red. He didn't seem to mind the position in which _he'd_ awoken.

"Hey...wait a minute. You said it was our Hogsmeade trip?"

"Yep," he replied, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Today?" she was sounding a bit hysterical now.

"Ye-es," he replied, clearly amused.

"We can't go," she said frankly.

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's not an answer!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is _not!"__  
><em>

"Well, of _course_ we can't go! The spells only worked when it came to cleansing! It's been almost a week since I last washed my hair! And no _way_ am I going _anywhere_ with this!" she said, pointing to the tangled mess that was her bed hair.

"Well, hate to break it to you Lils, but we _have_ to go to Hogsmeade today. McGonagall said we'd have to arrange the Winter Ball, and we need to get the supplies tod-Lily?" he cut in abruptly, as she started banging her head against the table.

"We could just go another day?"

"And when do you propose we do?"

She groaned. He grinned.

"I don't know what the big deal is. I mean, it's not that the students haven't seen us like this 'til now."

"James,"

"Lily?"

"I need to take a shower. The simple cleaning spell won't work out today."

That wiped the grin right off his face.

"I-you-what?"

"Well, glad to see you're finally catching up," she said dryly, though a hint of nervousness could be detected in her voice.

"Um...right," was his intelligent reply.

She fingered the hem of her shirt, trying to keep her hand busy.

"Well..."

James cleared his throat. "So...which bathroom do..._we_ use?"

"Heads' bathroom," she said and closed her eyes tightly for a moment.

He nodded slightly. "Right, well...we'll need to take our clothes and all..."

She sighed, closed her eyes briefly, raised her wand and cast the summoning spell wordlessly. A black colored jeans and a rather beautiful purple top, along with a pair of black sandals came flying towards her from the girl's dorm. She waved her wand again, and a cream colored sweater came zooming towards her. She caught it with her free hand and turned towards him.

"What are you going to wear?"

"You had that planned out?" he asked.

"Nah...they're the first thing in my cupboard, according to what I was thinking anyways. The sweater, yeah, that I had to match somewhat."

She shrugged. He grinned.

"Well, I guess you can try the same experiment with me too, then."

He shrugged. She grinned.

She pointed her wand towards the boy's dormitory, closed her eyes and said, "Accio!"

A pair of black colored trousers and a brown shirt, along with a pair of black shoes, once again made their way over to Lily. She handed him his clothes, before raising her wand again and summoning a deep brown sweater.

"How did you know I had a brown sweater? I haven't worn it much."

She shrugged. "I had a hunch."

With that, they made their way out of the common room, towards the Heads' lavatory. Thankfully, owing to the Hogsmede trip today, students were already in the Great Hall tucking away, which saved them a lot of embarrassment which otherwise was sure to come their way.

They turned a corner and found the staircase, but it was leading to another corridor on the fifth floor, in the opposite direction of their bathroom.

"Let's just get on. It's about to change anyways," James said, and sure enough, the staircase had started wobbling slightly.

She nodded in assent and they climbed. Just as James had predicted, after they had climbed about two steps, the staircase gave a sudden jerk and rushed towards the opposite side. The sudden jerk caused James to lose his balance and he fell straight on top of Lily.

They were sprawled across the stairs, legs tangled together in a rather awkward position and their clothes being the only thing to separate their bodies from touching completely.

His eyes locked with hers and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't take them off. There was something about her eyes...something about _her_ that always held his eye. Always grabbed his attention.

She stared in his eyes, not being able to tear her gaze away. She noticed his eyes properly for the first time. They weren't the brown color she's always thought. Hazel. A rather beautiful shade of hazel. '_What is wrong with you Lily?'_

Cheeks burning, she cleared her throat awkwardly. James, snapping from his train of thoughts, got off of her immediately, his cheeks the same color as hers.

"Sorry...I los-lost control-"

"Oh no...it's uh-alright."

"Stupid stairs," he grumbled.

"Yea..."

And with that they started climbing the rest of the stairs. Once in the corridor, they made their way over to the painting of Grapevine the Great.

"Password?" the uniformed man in the painting asked.

"Tipple Wipple," she said.

"Wrong. The password's been changed, Miss Head Girl."

"And who changed the password?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Mr. Head Boy."

She turned towards James and raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Slytherin's Slime," he said clearly.

"Very well then," said the portrait and opened wide.

She looked at him incredulously.

"That has _got_ to be the most _stupid_ thing I've ever heard!"

"But true!"

"Fine. That has _got_ to be the most _stupid,_ but true, thing I've ever heard!"

He chuckled. She joined in.

"Honestly though, what were you thinking?"

"Well...it alliterated!"

She gave him a dry look.

"Plus, this ensures that the Slytherins won't be able to sneak inside the Heads' lavatory!"

He smirked. She laughed.

"Alright then genius. Whatever you say."

He winked. She shook her head.

"Will you two be entering anytime soon, or shall I wait here, open for anyone to just _walk inside_ the whole day?"

They rolled their eyes simultaneously and walked inside. Lily pulled, well more like dragged, James to the rack near the bathtub. She opened the tap with hot water and let it fill the tub, while they kept their stuff on the rack.

James closed the tap once the water was filled to the brim. He had just peeled off his shirt when he noticed Lily hadn't made any sort of movement, and didn't look like she planned to any time soon either.

"Lily?"

She turned towards him. Her eyes widened as she saw him and, cheeks heavily flushed, turned her head as quickly as possible.

"Y-yea?"

Not that James was very comfortable about the whole situation either. Sure, he loved her. He knew it since last year. But he wouldn't ever push her into anything. He wanted her to love him too, of course. But not like this. How much he'd changed, how much he'd learned from her. He wanted her to see it, and love him back for who he was. Not because they'd been forced to spend time together.

"Uh...we'll have to-you know-make a start...I-"

"Right."

"Yea..."

"Well considering it's your right hand and my left hand which are attached, I'll just have t-to get in there first. I'll conjure a curtain, of sorts, in the middle. And then you can-yeah-get in and we can-yeah-just-", she made a random gesture with her hand, doing anything to keep the free one busy.

"Right. Yeah. Cool. That's a good plan. Smart. Brilliant even-"

"James?"

"Lily?"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

They looked at each other for a moment, before breaking down into peels of chuckles.

"Funny how our rambling can lighten the mood, isn't it?" James asked, still smiling.

She just shook her head, though her smile was still in place.

"Turn. Now. And. Don't. Face. This. Side. Till. I. Don't. Tell. You. To. Clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

He winked. She rolled her eyes.

"Git."

"I heard that!"

"Good!"

He laughed, just as he was pulled backwards, as she got into the tub. A little bit of scrambling and then he heard her mumbling an incantation. A few seconds later, he heard the sound of something being pulled across, and turned around.

"Okay, you can turn now."

"Who said I'm turning _now?"_

"James!"

"Kidding, kidding."

"Oh you better be," came a half irritated, half amused mumble.

"Oh, you better hope that I better be," was his cheeky reply.

"Potter!"

"Evans?"

"Oh forget it!"

He chuckled. She joined in.

He was standing in a rather uncomfortable position, half bent with his glasses almost flying off of his face. He took them out with his free hand gingerly and laid them on the little cabinet by the side of the tub. He undid the rest of his clothing and got into the tub, splashing water on the floor in the process; Lily had already turned on the water.

Their joint hands were right under the curtain, not moving an inch into his or her area.

James closed his eyes, felt the hot water burn his skin and sighed. He heard her opening the tap he knew was magicked to give a person's desired shampoo.

"Strawberry..." he whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing..."

"Right..."

He opened the tap, scooped up his vanilla scent shampoo and massaged it through his hair.

"You use vanilla?"

"Yeah, had a habit of using it since ten..."

"Oh..."

Silence, again. And very much uncomfortable. They were both extremely aware of their position. They were also extremely aware of just _how_ close they were right now in said position.

'**Fine James, relax.'**

_'Alright Lily, calm down.'_

**'Just forget that you're not alone...right, draw patterns. Good. Very good. Extremely-ugh! Stop it Prongs!'**

_'Alright Evans! You need to relax now! Distract yourself...'_

She started humming softly, all the while trying to control the rate at which her heart was beating.

He heard a soft humming from his right, instinctively knowing it was Lily. Not because she was the only other occupant in the lavatory right now. No, that'd require rational thinking and considering the rate at which his heartbeat was speeding right now, he wouldn't be able to think properly any time soon. It was because it was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. That was it. That was her. Lily.

"What song is that?" he inquired curiously.

"I...dunno. I've been humming it since as long as I can remember. It's just something I always hum when I'm-when I'm trying to...distract myself..."

"Oh..."

She had no idea why she was telling all this to James. It was something only her close friends knew. It was a habit of her's which she preferred people didn't know. Yet, there was something oddly reassuring about his presence which made her tell him.

_'How much time does a boy need to bloody shampoo his hair?'_

**'That girl needs to hurry up before I lose it.'**

_'Almost done...just relax!'_

**'Alright now...it's almost over...calm down Potter!'**

"Are you done?" they both asked at the same time.

He chuckled. She joined in.

"Alright. Pass me my towel, Mr. Potter."

"Uh...how do you propose I do that, Miss Evans?"

"Just-I don't know-hand it over from-oh dash it all. Put a towel around you and then _shut your eyes tightly!__"_

"Yes ma'am."

James got up, half bent owing to their hands' condition, and, with quite a bit of difficulty, grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his torso.

"Alright, you can come now," he said and turned around; well, as much as his body, given their predicament, would allow anyways.

Lily carefully peeped out from the curtain, and ensuring that he was facing the other side, hurriedly grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself.

"Are you decent?" he asked.

"Look who's speaking!"

He laughed. She rolled her eyes.

"Honestly Lils-I-woah-uh...I mean...I-" he shut up quickly, turning sideways, hoping she wouldn't notice his heavily flushed cheeks. Doing so, he completely missed the fiery blush spreading across _her_ face like wildfire too.

"Shut it, Potter."

He closed his mouth obediently. Merlin, this girl was going to be the death of him. What she she thinking, standing here in this short white towel like that?

"Right...you go first then," he said, in as much of a nonchalant voice as he could muster. He wasn't sure how long he'd be able to stand in their current situation.

"Yea, okay. You turn around. And no sneaking."

**'As much as I'm tempted to,'** he added mentally.

He heard her mutter an incantation, which he presumed magicked her top on her. A little bit of scrambling, and then he was bent forward, as she put on her pants.

"Alright, you go now."

It didn't take James more than a minute to pull his pants up his waist. His shirt, however, was a bit of a problem.

"Uh...Lily?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"I-well-I'll need some help with the shirt-I..."

Lily gulped and turned around slowly, trying to calm her breathing as much as possible.

_'What's wrong with you woman? It's only James!'_

She almost gasped when she saw him. Quidditch really had done him good.

_'An appointment straight with Madam Pomfrey when you're out of here, Evans.'_

James was staring intently at her. And somehow, for a reason she couldn't really fathom, she couldn't draw her gaze away from him either. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, until a portrait, namely the Great Spirit of the Shower Shadow, coughed blatantly.

They whipped their heads to see the portrait fixing them with a disapproving look, as though dissatisfied with the amount of respect they'd shown to his shower stretch.

**'Well...if this is not humiliating enough...'**_  
><em>

Lily waved her wand silently, and James' shirt eased itself onto him easily.

"Right..."

"Yeah..."

She sighed. He followed suit.

"Let's just go." she said.

"We should." he said.

"Right..."

"Yeah..."

She chuckled. He followed suit.

They exited the portrait, and James was just about to start walking when Lily stopped him. She turned towards the portrait and said clearly, "There will be a change in the current password."

"What? Why?" James asked forlornly.

"Because this one's too immature!"

The portrait, anxious to get back to sleep, was getting impatient.

"And that will be, Miss Head Girl?"

"Slytherin Sucks."

"Very well," and with that the portrait door closed shut.

He looked at her. She looked at him.

He grinned. She winked.

* * *

><p>James and Lily hurried towards the coaches, well, coach, since the rest of them had already left, and this one was about to leave too.<p>

To say that they reached just in time would be an understatement. They got inside the coach, panting, and almost groaned. A ride with the Sltherins. Oh, joy!

Fortunately, hey stepped inside to see that there were only two spots left.

Unfortunately, the two spots were right next to Mark Adams.

Mark Adams, a tall Slytherin with cold, grey eyes and an evil sneer always plastered across his sullen face, was known to harbor a crush on Lily, despite her being a Gryffindor. He did nothing to hide the fact that he had taken a fancy to the redhead witch, which would be quite sufficient to say that he and James weren't exactly the best of friends.

"Potter," Mark sneered, glancing at their intertwined hands with contempt.

"Adams," James snarled, his tone enough to send a shiver down anyone's spine.

"Well well, Evans darling. Won't you sit down?" Mark asked, indicating the spot right next to him, which Lily would _have_ to take, since he was sitting on the extreme right. And given their current hands' situation, there really was no other option.

Lily squeezed James' hand reassuringly, seeing as he looked ready to strangle the Slytherin.

They sat down grudgingly, but James immediately pulled Lily to his side, pressing her body against him. His free arm went round her stomach, holding her protectively. No mater how awkward the whole position was, Lily couldn't help but feel touched. He really did care about her.

Mark, on the other hand, seemed a lot less pleased about this. His eyes were burning a hole in James' forehead, and the look on his face was that of pure loathing.

Lily, looked up at James, and gave him a big smile. James couldn't really help but smile back. and just like that, they were engaged in a staring contest yet again, with neither making any move to break eye contact.

To say that this totally ticked off Mark would be an understatement.

He cleared his throat harshly, and the two were snapped out of their revive, but they still didn't pay him any attention.

"So, Evans. What're you doing today?"

"Nothing I'd like to share with you."

"Oh, feisty much, aren't we today?"

She smiled sweetly. "I'd love you give you a firsthand experience, Adams."

This promptly shut him up. Gryffindor or not, _nobody _doubted Lily Evans' dueling skills.

James smirked. Mark glared.

The ride came to a stop. James and Lily were the first to get up. They shuffled out of the coach, before James lost his cool.

"Alright. We made it till here. Alive. Let's try to stay that way 'til evening, yea?" Lily said optimistically.

James grinned. Lily smiled.

"So...where to first?" he asked.

Lily consulted the list McGonagall had given them. "Hmm...McGonagall's got the decoration stuff covered. Let's start with music."

"Alright, then."

And so they made their way towards Dominic Maestro's music shop. It was, as the name suggests, run by Dominic Maestro, a middle aged man.

The door creaked open, and the two stepped inside. Just what a typical music shop would look like. Rows and rows of instruments, some they'd never even heard of. Stranger yet for Lily, as wizarding instruments were quite different from muggle ones. Records were hung in layers on the far end wall. Their host came towards them with a pleasant smile.

"Hello, there. I am Mr. Maestro."

"James Potter." he said and shook hands with the man.

"Lily Evans." she smiled and shook his hand. Maestro held it for a moment, until James cleared his throat meaningfully, giving the man anything but a "that's my girl" look.

Maestro chuckled. Lily rolled her eyes. James relaxed.

**'All good.'**

"So, how can I help you two?"

"We need to select a few tracks for the Christmas Ball." Lily replied.

"Ah, yes. Minerva told me something about it. An excellent idea. So, choose away then."

They made their way into the shop, looking at the various records on the wall.

"The Weird Sisters' Christmas theme...when did this come out?" James asked, surveying the track with a photo of the eight members of the band.

"Oh, quite recent, this one is, and quite nice too, if I must say so myself." Maestro said.

"Alright, put that as one then." Lily told the shopkeeper.

And then they searched. It took about forty minutes more until they were finally done with the tracks. And they had taken almost all of them. Blodwyn Bludd, Celestina Warbeck, Lorcan d'Eath, Madame Bletchley and all the others. James had insisted upon The Hobgoblins' famous fifty hits, and Lily had picked the Spellbound's latest seasonal number, saying that it was quite rare that they made a song not inspired by any recent scandal.

And that was it. The music department, looked into.

"Well, that will be..." Maestro broke off to calculate the amount of their total purchase, "thirty seven galleons, if you please."

Lily took out the amount from the bag McGonagall had given them for the expenses, and handed it over to the shopkeeper.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Maestro," she said as they exited the shop.

"My pleasure, dear."

James had refused Lily to carry either of the two bags, being the gentleman that he was.

"So...let's head to Gladrags Wizardwear then. Seeing as we'll have to-you know- go together...we'll need to mach our robes and all."

"Yeah. Let's get this over with," she said.

James hid a smile. He knew very well that Lily had no liking whatsoever to fuss over clothes.

They went inside the store, and were immediately greeted by the shopkeeper.

"Mr. Potter and Miss Evans. Yes, Minerva has told me all about the ball. Now, if you two would step this side, I'll show you the most recent designs. Head Students do deserve a little special wear, don't they?", he winked and moved along to the back of the shop.

He moved aside a curtain, and led the two to a room full of robes. Some quite magnificent, some simply strange.

"There. You two try on and decide, then." Gladrags, the shopkeeper, winked and left.

She turned towards him.

"What color would you like?" Lily asked, actually curious.

"Hmm...green. Emerald green. It'll go perfectly with your eyes..."

He smiled. She grinned.

She walked towards a stand laden with shirts. She looked through them for a while, before extracting a deep emerald colored shirt. It was classy, nothing extraordinary, but a good choice. Lily magicked it on him, and grinned.

"Perfect! It'll look good with any regular tux. You have it?"

"Yeah."

James gave himself a once-over in the mirror.

"Indeed. I do look quite handsome, if I say so myself."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's find me a dress and be done with this before your head becomes too large to fit inside the place," she said, but there was a teasing glint in her eyes.

"Yes, your highness."

This time, James walked over to the other side of the room. Dresses, of all colors, types and designs, were hung on various stands.

He skimmed over various designs, before stopping at one. He took it out and handed it over to Lily.

"Try it," he said decidedly.

"Well...turn around then."

He turned. Lily undressed herself and then magicked the dress James had selected on her using an incantation.

"Well...?"

James turned around, and swore his breathing stopped for a moment.

The dress was a rich emerald green color, knee length and off shoulder, with a belt around the stomach. It fitted her perfectly. It wasn't much of the dress...but how it looked on _her, _that had rendered James speechless. She looked just exquisite.

"You...you look...amazing," he said, finding his voice back.

She turned slightly red, with the way he was staring at her, like she was the best thing in the world, but smiled.

"I think we're through, then."

"You-you don't want to see?"

She met his eyes.

"Well, I trust you."

He turned around again, but not before Lily caught the huge grin spreading across his face. She couldn't help but smile either.

_'Maybe we should go to the pharmacy after this.'_

She turned back into her clothes, and together, she and James, made their way back towards the counter.

Since James' hand was already occupied, Lily held the bags which contained their robes.

They payed for their respective clothes, and walked out into the bustling street. Well, bustling with visitors, at least. Hogwarts' students were nowhere in sight.

"Hey...wait a second. Why haven't we seen the rest of them 'til now?" Lily asked, slightly suspicious.

"Sirius told me they'd be going to the Shrieking Shack. And they'd all have left by now anyways. It's past curfew for Hogsmeade." James said.

"How come we took so much of time?"

"Well, I have no idea. But we need to hurry up. We still haven't taken care of the refreshments."

"You're right. McGonagall will kill us if we go back without everything," she rolled her eyes. "But how will we go back?"

"Secret passage, I guess. You know all about them, right?" James asked.

"I've known all about them since third year, James. Me and Eva...you know us. Always moving about. Stumbled across so many of them, here and there..."

She winked. He laughed.

"Stumbled? Or got lost?"

"Hey! That was only in first year, okay!"

"So, you know the passage from Honeydukes' cellar?"

"Yeah. _That's_ the one we stumbled across in first year."

"What?" James looked flabbergasted. "You visited Hogsmeade in _first year?_ That's a year before us!"

"Well...not sad are we, Mr. Potter?"

"Yeah, yeah. Very, Miss Evans. Shall we?"

"I wish I could say after you, but...",she glanced down at their joined hands, mock sadly.

He laughed. She grinned.

"Come on. We need to hurry up."

That said, they made their way towards Honeydukes, the sweet shop. It was Lily's favorite place in the entire village. Yes, she was a _big_ chocoholic.

Her eyes lit up, as they entered the shop. She smiled, which couldn't have been avoided anyways. Hello! There was chocolate _everywhere!_ Literally.

Picking out refreshments wasn't a difficult job. They basically picked out a generous amount of assortments from each and every category of sweets present in the shop.

Lily bought quite a number of sweets for themselves too. Most of them were chocolates. But James had picked out a rather-um-_wild_ set of assortments too. One of them was a blue colored package, that shrieked if it was to be stored in any condition lower than room temperature. Another, an orange color pack, known as Fireball's Fury was meant to spit out fire if not kept in frozen condition, along with providing a rather bad breath. "Otherwise, if kept in proper conditions, it has to be one of the sweetest thing you'd have ever tasted", the shopkeeper had assured.

They paid and left the shop.

"Well, that would have been an easy getaway. But there are a lot of people back there near the cellar right now. I don't think we can risk it." Lily said.

"And I don't have my cloak either!" James mused.

"What cloak?"

"Uh...keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"My invisibility cloak. Family heirloom." James told her in a hushed voice.

"An invisibility cloak? That's really rare. Oh...wait a minute! So _that's_ how you've been sneaking all around the school isn't it?"

"Oh, well...you know me..."

He winked. She rolled her eyes.

"Well...how do we get out of here then? It's getting late. If that oh so creepy caretaker-" James snickered,"- of ours found us entering this late, we're going to be in big trouble."

"Well...that one by the old shop-" he broke off.

Standing in front of them, was the biggest hellhound, and hellhound it was, they'd ever seen. What it was doing in the streets on a perfectly normal afternoon, and just _how_ it could have escaped...wherever it came from, was beyond them. And what was worse? It seemed to be heading right towards them.

"Uh...I don't think we have time to think of any passages right now..." Lily said nervously.

"Right. Run!"

And so they did. Not that they were alone. Wizards and witches, visitors and residents, everyone was running around in a chaos, trying to get away from the beast. However, the hellhound seemed to be interested only in James and Lily.

It would be safe to say that they had absolutely no idea where they were running. How such a normal day could take such a turn they had no idea. Also, the weight of the bags was slowing them down.

They had been running for quite some time now, and there was no market to be seen. The hellhound was nowhere in sight, but for safety sake they ran into a little clearing.

They knew where they were going, right? Wrong. Well, on the brighter side they were away from that...animal. On the other side...

"Where in Merlin's name are we?" Lily asked.

"Let's find out!"

"Oh great," she muttered.

This place was definitely some kind of forest. They wandered along for some time in silence.

"How did that..._thing_ get in there anyway?" James asked.

"No idea. But it was coming for us. I can't help feeling that someone-"

"Deliberately put it on our tail, yes. I've been thinking about it. But that was just-"

"Creepy. Yeah, I know."

Suddenly James stopped. There was some shuffling from somewhere ahead them. And then suddenly, a creature stopped in front of them, grinning luxuriantly.

"Well well...looks like we have some company, then."

Well, at least _now_ they knew where they were.

The Forbidden Forest.

* * *

><p>"You should not have come here, humans." One of of the centaurs said.<p>

"I _told_ you! We didn't have a choice!" Lily snapped.

"Quiet, human. You have dared to enter our territory."

"Oh, come on! What is it with you?" James whined.

"It'd best be for you to be quiet, boy. I'm still lenient. Our caption may not."

"Lenient. Right." Lily murmured.

The centaur holding her squeezed her arm. "Ow! You, Mr-well-whatever! Watch your hands!"

"How _dare_ you-" James started furiously.

"Don't you dare me, human." The centaur holding Lily warned.

"Or what, huh? Why you little-"

"James! Leave it!"

"But-"

"Yes. Listen to the girl, if you want to stay alive for a little longer." The centaur leading the group said.

They were being carried by the centaurs, but not too far away, owing to their hands' situation.

Their bags, thanks to Lily's quick wit, had been magically shrunk and hidden in her socks. But they knew that it would be pointless, if they didn't think of something soon.

And then Lily had an idea. A rather stupid one, but it seemed like the only possibility at the moment. She looked at James, and fond him staring right back at her. His gaze kept flickering from looking concernedly at her, and then looking angrily at the centaur holding her. She hid a smile.

"Distract them" she mouthed.

"Why?" he mouthed back.

She rolled her eyes.

"Just do as I say!" she said.

"What was that, girl?"

But before Lily could answer, James had kicked a nearby rock, aiming at the centaur who was leading the group. It hit him square in the back. He turned around furiously.

"You will pay for that, human," he snarled.

He started approaching James, with all the centaurs in tow. Even the centaur holding Lily's grip slackened. And that's when she dived. Like, literally.

She pushed him off her, and jumped to the other side, taking out her wand in the process. She couldn't jump too far away though, without dragging James along as well. The centaur's leader looked around, confused, but James called out-

"Hey, horseback!"

The centaur whipped around again and snarled. He was about to advance on him, when suddenly he was pulled back, ropes tying themselves all around his body. Lily stepped forward, wand drawn.

"Now," she started calmly, "who else wants to fight here?"

The centaurs all retreated a step back. If their leader had been overthrown so easily, they didn't exactly want to mess with them, humans or not.

"Very good. Now, you will lead us back to Hogwarts."

"And what makes you think we'll agree, human?" a mean-looking centaur asked.

"You could fight us, if you want to." Lily said, glancing at James, who'd drawn his wand too, clutching her hand tightly.

Grumbling, the centaur who had been carrying James started moving, mumbling a short "follow me" in his wake.

"And don't try anything funny!" James warned the others, as he and Lily stepped forward.

No longer were they out of earshot of the centaurs, that James pulled Lily to him, nearly crushing her. He exhaled slowly, his grip on her tightening. She moved her free arm around him and closed her eyes.

"Those _bloody_ horses!"

"Honestly, James. I'm fine! Really."

But he kept grumbling. He was a little too over-protective when it came to Lily.

She pulled back slightly and cupped his chin with her free hand. He looked at her and she smiled slightly.

"I'm _fine_, okay!"

"This is probably the third time you've smiled at me today. You are definitely _not_ fine, Evans."

She laughed. He grinned.

"Let's go before we lose him," she said.

They jogged a few steps ahead, where their centaur guide was running ahead.

"Hey! Slow down there!" Lily yelled.

He grumbled some more, but slowed his pace.

They trudged for about half an hour more, before finally they saw the old palace. Man, had they ever been more happy to see it?

The centaur nodded towards the castle, and then galloped away, back into the forest.

Lily and James walked towards the castle, then the dark sky, knowing they were stuck.

They entered through the oak door, and were just about to thank their stars when a familiar, and not very pleasant voice stopped them.

"Well well. What do we have here?" Apollyon Pringle, their caretaker sneered.

Lily and James sighed.

"Out of school, out of hours. Detention for both of you. Tomorrow evening, seven sharp. Trophy room."

And with that, he walked away. Well, limped away. He always walked funnily.

"Great! Just great!" Lily gritted.

They walked off towards the Heads' dormitory in silence. Upon reaching, James gave the password and the two went inside the portrait hole.

Lily bent down and took off her shoes, effectively dragging James along in the process, who took off his as well. She extracted the little bags from her socks and returned them to their original side, and threw then on the couch lazily.

Next, she conjured the two sleeping bags and changed their clothes into their nightwear.

And with that, both of them promptly collapsed in their bags.

"Night James," she whispered sleepily.

"Night Lils," he whispered back, as sleep finally claimed the two.

* * *

><p><em><strong>There! Here you have it, chapter six! Alright alright, so it took a LOT of time. Yes, I know. I'm very sorry. Exams going on, so many chapters...can't really help it can you? :P<strong>_

**_BUT it's vacation now! Which means I'll be updating sooner. :D_**  
><strong><em>Coming back to chapter six, the update was sorta hasty, as it'd been a long time since my last one. So the chapter isn't all that good. But then again, when I am ever satisfied? ;)<em>**

**_I really want to thank you all for your reviews. They really do encourage me.  
>As for the next update, I'll try to make it as soon as possible. And hopefully, better.<em>**

**_For the time being, REVIEW! :D  
>I always love to know your opinions. :)<br>_**

**_Cheers,  
>RainHolly<em>**


	7. Envious Encounters and Sticky Situations

**Chapter seven! (Finally!)  
><strong>

**Of envious errands and 'sticky' situations **

* * *

><p>With the sunlight slowly drifting into the room from the slightly peaking curtains in the common room, and the birds chirping away lightly in the background, none of which disturbed the sleeping forms of the two seventeen year old students in the slightest, were Lily and James, sleeping away to glory.<p>

"Guys!"

"Goodness, Padfoot!" Remus whispered. "Not so loud!"

"Sorry!"

_"Padfoot!"_

"_Sorry!_"

Remus chuckled. Honestly, some things would never change.

"Do we wake them up?" Eva asked.

Mary opened her mouth to reply but Sirius had already walked over to the curtains and shoved them aside, letting sunlight hit the common room.

James stirred slightly, instinctively reached his free arm round Lily, pulled her closer to him and neatly tucked her under him, but otherwise kept sleeping. Lily sighed in her slumber, and snuggled more comfortably into James' shirt. He smiled in his sleep, resting his cheek upon hers.

The rest of the group was watching the two Head's sleeping with small traces of smiles, before Sirius, as usual, thought it prudent to ruin the moment.

He leaned over James and Lily, so much that his nose was probably two or three inches apart from James'. James opened his eyes slowly, only to find a face, somewhat humanoid(_'Hey! I hadn't had a bath!' Sirius had protested later on) _staring down at him.

_"Gah!" _he all but screamed.

Lily woke up with a start.

"Who's dead?"

"My hearing," Sirius muttered, hands still clasped firmly around his ears.

"Padfoot-" James started calmly...a little too calmly,"-are you _mental?_"

"Oh, well...that's gratitude for you!" Sirius complained.

"Gratitude for _what, _exactly, Sirius?" Lily asked, rubbing her ears.

"Yeah...gratitude for _what, _exactly, Sirius?" Remus asked, smirking.

Sirius seemed to be thinking about it, when suddenly he exclaimed, "For waking you two up, of course!"

James and Lily were about to open their mouths but suddenly Sirius grinned slyly.

"Not that you didn't seem to be all...comfy...of course," he winked.

James, who free hand was still around Lily's abdomen, turned an interesting shade of red. Lily seemed to notice the weight around her stomach for the first time. James removed his arm quickly, while Lily got up, obviously carrying James along as well, with some difficulty.

"Off to breakfast, big boy," she muttered, ears slightly pink.

Sirius grinned happily. "Yes ma'am!" he saluted and shot out of the portrait hole.

The rest of the group chuckled.

"Um," Peter broke the silence after a moment, "is he going to have a bath or not?"

Remus sighed. "Only time will tell, Pete."

They all laughed.

"See you guys down, then?" Isa asked.

"Sure," Lily said.

And so the rest of them, barring Lily and James of course, made their way out of the portrait hole. Lily turned to James and muttered an incantation, swishing her wand effortlessly, effectively changing his clothes to their uniform. She then proceeded to do the same with hers.

After they had summoned their bags, they started making their way out of the portrait hole, when James suddenly stopped Lily.

"You've been thinking about that hound, haven't you?" he asked her concernedly.

"No, of course I haven'-I-yes. Yes, I have," she sighed.

He cupped her cheek with his free hand. "Don't worry, okay? I admit that it's coming right after us _was_ freaky...but we'll think of that later. I don't want you to take any stress, alright?"

She smiled at him and nodded lightly. "Alright," she said softly.

He smiled back at her, and they started making their way towards the Great Hall.

* * *

><p>"Merlin's dirtiest left sock, Sirius!<em> What are you doing?" <em>Lily exclaimed._  
><em>

Sirius grinned from his position, upside down, right in the middle of the Gryffindor table, his head on squashed eggs; but he seemed to be unaware of the fact.

"Completing a dare, of course! What do you think, LilyFlower? I'm stupid enough to do something like this on my own?"

Silence. Complete silence.

Sirius huffed. "I hate you guys," he mumbled, and started to climb down from the table. He straightened up and sat on his seat, and soon enough his plate was completely invisible under his-uh-breakfast.

There was still silence. Sirius looked up and saw every face turned towards him. And then, after a moment, everyone started laughing.

"What?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

"Nothing," Mary gasped, trying to regain her breath.

Sirius' hair was completely covered in eggs. No, squashed eggs. Well, yes, not a rather pretty sight.

Eventually they all calmed down and sat for breakfast. Lily filled James' plate for him, since his right hand was currently of no use. The rest of the group gave each other knowing smiles.

"You know," Lily started casually, "you people really should learn the art of subtlety."

Everyone chuckled.

"Oh and Padfoot, you can't call Lily LilyFlower." James added.

Sirius smirked. Under normal circumstances that would have been enough to make any girl go weak in the knees, but given his current 'hair situation', the effect didn't really come out.

"Why? Possessive, are we?"

James shrugged. "Whatever. No one is allowed to call her that."

"Except you, of course," Isa put in, winking.

"Except me, of course!" James replied, grinning.

"You people seem to have forgotten the fact that I'm still here, or are you just choosing to ignore it?" Lily asked dryly.

"The latter," Eva said, munching on her Yorkshire pie.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You people are impossible."

"But that's why you love us, eh?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, that doesn't even begin to cover it, Sirius," she replied, rolling her eyes.

Sirius barked a laugh. Everyone else looked at Sirius and sniggered.

"Alright, what's the matter?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," Eva said nonchalantly.

James snorted. "Yeah, nothing at all."

Sirius scowled. "I hate you lot."

Finally Remus took some pity on the poor boy. "Padfoot...you hair is-"

"_What?_" Sirius asked frantically. "What about my hair?"

"Nothing," Remus smirked, "It just seems to be covered in eggs-"

But he didn't get to complete the sentence. Sirius had shot out of his seat as though it were on fire, and dashed out of the Hall, probably to the nearest boys' lavatory.

"Where did he go?" Peter asked.

"Three guesses where," James smirked.

The rest of them laughed.

* * *

><p>"Shh. It's McGonaga-hey, what's she doing here?" a seventh year Gryffindor said.<p>

Professor McGonagall entered the DADA classroom, with another man in her wake. The guy looked like he was in his early twenties. He was, indeed, a rather good-looking man with light black hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Good morning. Professor Grumblyface is on a temporary leave, so I would like to introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts' teacher, Professor John Gregory."

The professor smiled. No denying that more than half the female population present in the class sighed.

"This will be it, then. Professor Gregory, on to you," said McGonagall and left the classroom.

"Well, well, good morning then," Professor Gregory said cheerfully.

Nearly ninety nine percent of the female population present in the class sighed dreamily. Barring Lily Evans, of course.

"Very well, good morning. I am Professor John, and, as Minerva already told you, I will be substituting for Professor Grumblyface-" he chuckled lightly, invoking laughter from the entire class- "till he's fit to join us again. So, let's start with today's lesson, shall we?" He smiled widely and looked around.

He looked in Lily and James' direction a little longer than necessary, making James scowl. He had a _very_ good idea _who_ their new _professor_ was looking at.

Lily looked up and noticed Professor Gregory looking at her. He smiled, no doubt a little coyly, and she straightened up in her position, breaking eye contact.

James pulled Lily closer, so much that her shoulder was touching his. She looked at him; he was busy glaring at the professor who had decided to extract his books from his bag; and smiled, only slightly.

"Well, let's get started then. Page number two seventy six, if you will, students. And-" he looked around deliberately-"Ah, Miss Evans, is it not? Head Girl, yes Dumbledore told me. Well, yes if you'd read the first two paragraphs to the class..."

"Sorry _Professor,_ but I have a sore throat," she replied, faking, rather poorly, to the amusement of the class, a prolonged cough.

Remus and Eva sniggered. The rest of them smirked.

"Well, no matter, no matter," he said, and gave her a flippant smile, to which she rolled her eyes; yes, on his face. "I'm sure, ah, and what would be your name?" he asked a a Ravenclaw with strawberry blonde hair.

"S-Samantha, Professor," she stammered.

"Very well, Samantha. Why don't you read out the first two paragraphs of the chapter to the class?"

She came to the front of the class and started speaking, well, starting droning to be precise, about something which the seventh years just could not bring themselves to take interest in.

"-a great ancestor of James Mc-g-" Samantha broke off and started giggling, batting her eyelashes in James' direction, and then continued with the rest of the history. Though Lily's interest had been successfully averted from the text. She was a little preoccupied glaring in the girl's direction.

"Honestly, how pathetic can you _get_?" was all she said, scoffing, though at the same time, resting her and James' joined hands on the table. It was quite remarkable that their hands were in straight line of vision of the the blonde in the front of the class.

James hid a smile.

"So, Lily," he said, casually bumping her shoulder with his.

"What?" she rolled here eyes, but didn't push him away.

"Noting," he grinned.

She rolled her eyes.

Just then Sirius burst in through the room, bits of egg crumbs still visible on his head.

"Sorry Professor-uh-"

"Gregory."

"Yes, sorry Professor Gregory," he smiled apologetically, making more than a few girls sigh, "ran into some trouble on my way."

"Why, have a bad hair day, Sirius?" Eva asked.

The entire class laughed, Sirius included.

"Just something like that, Hansen," he winked. Eva laughed.

"Well well, whatever it is, I hope I don't see you barging through the door after half the class is over next time, I hope. Please take a seat."

"You couldn't have told me my head was on _squashed eggs_, Moony?" he whispered as he sat down next to Remus.

"Would you have told me if it was me?" Remus asked.

Sirius thought for a moment. "No."

"There you have it Padfoot."

Sirius smirked. "You're evil, mate."

Remus scoffed. "Yeah, that coming from you."

Sirius just grinned. And so, the class went on more or less uneventfully. As the bell rang and the students started filing out of the class, however, Professor Gregory stopped Lily.

"Excuse me, Miss Evans, yeah right, well, I wanted to give these-" he stopped short at James' expression.

"Well, hurry along Potter, Miss Evans will join you shortly." And then he smirked.

"Well, sorry _sir,_ but you see our hands are-" he brought Lily close to him in one swift movement and raised their interlocked hands- "stuck together."

"Oh, I see." It was James' turn to smirk.

"Well in any case, Lily, take these papers and distribute them to the rest of the children in your class," Gregory said and smiled widely.

"Yeah sure," she replied in a drawling voice.

He extended hi hand to give her the papers, but James snatched them, quite literally, from his hands before they were even halfway towards her direction.

"Sorry Prof, gotta run. Lily and I-" he cleared his throat meaningfully and turned towards her slyly and winked, almost inconspicuously, and she grinned- "have some business to attend to. So if you don't mind..."

He didn't wait for Gregory's answer. He and Lily walked out of the classroom at full speed and Lily burst out laughing as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Merlin! His fac-face-" she wheezed. James joined in.

Lily sobered up slightly after walking for a little while, though.  
>"Thanks for, you know, back there. I might have punched him if he'd gone on any longer."<p>

"Oh trust me, I would have punched him long back," he grumbled, as they made their way towards the Great Hall.

Lily grinned, pleased, at what even she didn't know.

* * *

><p>"Come on! Is that what all you can do? Is that all Quidditch has given you?" Lily asked the students assembled in the Great Hall.<p>

"Hey! I don't even play Quidditch!"

"I'm not even _allowed_ to play Quidditch!" a first year mumbled.

James looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here...midget?"

"James!"

"Sorry Lils."

"Come on kid, run along." Lily said.

The first year shrugged and skipped away. Lilly sighed and turned back towards the prefects.

"Okay now look. I'm not having the time of my life here, and I think I can gather from public opinion that you guys aren't either. So let's just get this over with!"

The prefects laughed, barring the Slytherin ones who were, as usual, sulking away in the corner.

"Yeah, and you expect us to take orders from the idiot _Potter_ and _yo-_" the Slytherin didn't get to finish his statement as James had whipped out his wand and pointed it directly at his face.

"I'm warning you, Duncan, just shut that good for nothing mouth of yours and do the work like the rest of us. And say whatever the hell you want to about me, if I hear a _single_ thing you say about-anyone else, I promise you that might as well be the last think you ever say."

The rest of the prefects all smirked. Everyone knew whom he was was talking about, naturally. The girls smiled dreamily, and albeit, jealously. Lily smiled slightly; softly.

"Enough, James," she said gently to a still irate James. "Right, and as to the rest of you, let's begin with the decorations. Discuss and tell us what you think should be the most appropriate items to decorate the Hall for the Christmas Ball, and we'll note down the best suggestions." She sighed and mocked an exhausted face. "That okay?"

They all chuckled. James shook his head and grinned.

_'She has to be the cutest person I've ever seen,' _he thought fondly.

"Okay, so anyone has any ideas for a theme?"

"Uh, James?"

"Yeah Lils?"

"Isn't it already like...a Christmas Ball?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes. But, well...I was thinking if we could have something slightly different-"

"Touche."

James smirked and opened his mouth but Lily cut in again.

"Sarcasm. Total sarcasm."

Everyone sniggered.

"You done yet?"

She smiled widely. He grinned, despite himself.

"So,_ as I was saying_, the Christmas Ball and the rest of the blah blah can go on just as it is, but that doesn't mean we can't add a touch of...something else you know? The normal Christmas decorations? Everyone will be expecting it. Why not do it a little differently?"

Lily smiled bemusedly. "Well, finally the boy is talking some sense."

"Hey!"

Everyone chuckled. "Right. So, well...anyone any ideas?" Lily asked.

Anna, a sixth year Hufflepuff prefect spoke in her clear, slightly french accent.

"Well, I've always wanted to attend a _bal masqué!" _

"A _what_?" said everyone in unison.

She rolled her eyes.

"It means a masquerade ball."

"Ooh! You mean one of those in which you have to wear masks and costumes!"

"Uh, yes Eline. That's just it. Right, well how many people for it?" Lily asked.

"Just for extra information, are partners supposed to match their costumes and stuff?" James asked.

"Well, yes of course they have to!" Anna said.

James looked down and his and Lily's intertwined hands, smiled gleefully and raised his hand.

"Alright, all those for it?"

Lily rolled her eyes.

'_Honestly, he has to be the most amusing person I've ever seen_,' she thought, shaking her head.  
>But then why was she-wait-<em>was<em> she? Yes, she was but, why?  
>For all she knew, Lily Evans could not fathom why she was smiling.<p>

All the other prefects raised their hands, surprisingly few of the the ones in Slytherin as well.

"All right. That's decided then." Lily said, scribbling it down on her parchment.

James took over from there. "Now coming to food..."

* * *

><p>"Lily?"<p>

She turned around and came face to face with Amos Diggory, their fellow seventh year Hufflepuff. Amos had light blue eyes and blond hair. He was indeed, among the most popular guys in their year.

"Oh, um, hello Amos."

"Hullo! I just wanted to ask if you were doing anything tonight."

"Uh, right, well I am-"

"Helping me in my Charms assignment." James cut her.

"Come now! Homework can be done anytime! I'm sure you can take out some time for fun, you know." he winked.

Lily felt something shaking, then realized it was her hand...the one that was attached to James'.

"_Extremely_ sorry, Diggory, but it's important." James said through gritted teeth.

"Of course, but-"

"Look Amos, I'm sorry but there's a lot to discuss for the Ball as well, so there's no way we can make it, alright?"

"We...?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Lily raised their joined hands and, quite literally, waved it in front of his eyes.

"Yes. _We_. And now if you'll excuse us."

And with that she turned on her heels and walked away with James, who seemed to have half made up his mind to throttle Diggory then and there, as fast as her legs would carry her.

She kept on steering them quickly until they reached the library, in relative silence, ignoring James' one-sided "grumbling to himself" conversation, of course.

They entered, with James still "talking" to himself. The librarian spoke suddenly.

"Hey!"

"Wha-" James broke out of his trance and stared at the thin, strict-looking, slight grey-haired librarian standing with her hands on her hips, fixing him with a look of disapproval.

"Sorry about him, Madame Librosamas." Lily started, grinning. "He very...disturbed, you see."

"Well, that's no reason to disturb others as well!" Madame Librosamas said and walked away, huffing.

James started at her retreating profile for a minute before turning towards Lily, wearing a confused expression.

"What's wrong with her?"

Lily laughed, making James chuckle.

"Who was that?" came the librarian's voice from somewhere ahead of them.

"Not m-urrr!"

"James!" she whispered frantically in a reprimanding tone.

"Bhwaa?"

"Merlin!" She turned towards him, and then looked forward. "Look."

And so he did. Two Slytherins, namely Avery and Rosier were lurking about near the potions section, talking in hushed tones.

"What d'you reckon they are doing?" Lily asked, whispering.

"Not browsing for the recipe of pumpkin juice," he said, frowning slightly.

"Come on," Lily mumbled and together they made their way towards an old-looking dust clad shelf, just behind the potions section.

Lily peered through two books and saw their lips moving. They craned their necks slightly and caught a few words.

"-but he was very clear in what he said, Rosier!"

"I know but-"

"As it is, you've always wanted her, haven't you? What better oppertu-" Definite sneering could be made out from his tone.

"Shut it, Avery! You know well enough-"

They couldn't catch a few of his next words due to the shifting of books.

"-but, well...you never know."

_Creak! _

Some shifting again.

"-and it might even silence him...forever."

And then the slight maniac, though hushed laughter.

Lily and James looked at each other. Avery and Rosier finally walked away from that shelf, a thick and battered copy of some book in Rosier's hand, and walked out of the library.

They waited a minute or two and then stepped out from behind the shelf and sat down in a secluded spot, near the restricted section.

"What the _hell_ was all that about?"

"I dunno, James. But..."

"Lils? You alright?" he asked concernedly.

"Yes...yes, I'm fine. But...things look pretty weird now. First that hound in Hogsmede, now these two talking as though they're planning something evil-"

She stopped mid sentence and faced James. His expression mirrored her own.

"I know! And the way they were saying things...especially that part when Avery said something about Rosier always wanting someone-I-" he hands balled into fists and he closed his eyes tightly. He knew quite well just _who _it could be Avery had been hinting at.

Unconsciously, his hand tightened around Lily's.

"Come on, that could mean anything."

"And what about the silencing thing, though?"

"I-come on James we'll think about it later." She looked troubled.

James opened his mouth but Lily cut him.

"Anyway, we can't concentrate on that right now. It could be anything they were talking about. Probably some prank or something."

"Yeah, maybe."

Neither of them were convinced.

Suddenly Lily groaned. James looked at her.

"What? Are you alright?"

"I just remembered-I-ugh! We have detention at seven!"

James laughed.

"Honestly, Lils. I thought you would have been used to that by now."

She rolled her eyes.

"Besides, it's actually fun!"

"I don't know what particular fancy you have towards cleaning toilets or scrubbing trophies, but I most certainly do not see the appeal," she said dryly.

He laughed.

"Well, what if I make you see the appeal, huh?"

"Ah. And...how exactly do you propose to do that?"

"Well, the answer's quite simple and straight-forward, really."

"Oh, is it?"

"Yep."

"Pray tell then, James."

"You'll be serving detention with me, won't you?"

"Oh my Merlin! How _very_ foolish of me! How could I forget?"_  
><em>

James grinned and opened his mouth, but once again, Lily cut him.

"Again. Sarcasm. Total sarcasm."

He grinned widely, making her roll her eyes, but chuckle slightly nevertheless.

"You know you're the cutest person I've ever seen, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" she clapped her hands together! Well, hands in the sense all three hands, including James' one attached to her own. "Now let's get going, shall we? I'm not cleaning a hundred extra trophies because we were late."

James smiled fondly and got up along with her, as they made their way out of the library. Not before receiving a dirty look from Madame Librosamas, which James reciprocated with a cheesy smile.

* * *

><p>"What's the time?"<p>

"Six fifty, may-whoa!"

"Hurry up James! That bloody Pringle will keep us there for more time as it is and I don't want to further add to the long torturous hours we already have to spend in there!"

James laughed, but quickened his pace.

They reached the Trophy Room on precisely a minute to seven and came face to face with Pringle.

He seemed to be rather unhappy with the fact that they had managed to reach on time.

"Get inside, you two. Two hours. No magic. Your wands, if you please?" he smiled smugly.

They handed over their wands, albeit reluctantly.

The caretaker steered them inside the room and shut the door, giving them a last flash of his dirty yellow teeth.

"Well, this would be fun." James said brightly.

Lily groaned. "Great!"

And with that they made their way over to the first shelf occupied by various trophies, won by students of many by-gone eras...and maybe even the previous year.

"Why do even have to clean these bloody trophies?" Lily grumbled, while scrubbing a rather dusty looking trophy. "As if anyone even looks at them!"

"Well, I most certainly don't!" James said and winked. He started coughing a second later because of a huge amount of deposition of dust right below his nose, while trying to scrub with his left hand-the only free hand.

"Lily? Uh, would you mind?" James said, a dirty cloth still in his hand.

Lily sighed and moved her hand just above his chin and gently wiped away the dust particles.

Their eyes met, just for a second, before that turned away and started again with their work; but it was enough.

About an hour later, they had finished all the trophies in that particular room. They made their way over to a tiny room joined to the main one, when they could roughly make out about ten or fifteen trophies kept.

"Well, here's another treat," James grumbled as they shuffled inside. As they were about to turn, however, they lost balance and toppled over some trophy that had fallen on the floor. the rest of the few trophies in that room, due to the next to no a mount of space, fell down as well, leaving absolutely no place for any movement at all.

They were lying in the same position that they had found themselves in many times since their hands' predicament. James above Lily. No scope for movement. Stuck together.

"Merlin!" Lily groaned. "How did we even _get_ inside? No, wait. _Why_ did we even get inside this place?"

"Yeah, I've been trying to figure that out myself." James said, trying to move, with Lily doing the same. Not to any avail, though.

Lily stopped suddenly, staring at one particular trophy which had fallen directly on their right side.. James noticed she had stopped moving and turned to look at what had caught her attention.

"Potions mastery, dated hmm hmm hmm...to Tom Riddle, for showing-" He stopped mid sentence. "Is that-"

"Voldemort, yes." Lily said, pure contempt evident in her voice.

A cold wave enveloped the room like a suffocating blanket. And suddenly, James thought he knew why there was so much vehemence in he tone.

"He tried to recruit you, didn't he?" he asked her quietly.

Her face showed signs of faint surprise.

"Dad works in the ministry. I heard him talking about Voldemort wanting to recruit students. He tried to recruit Frank as well."

"Yes," she said. "Yes, he did. Nearly killed my sister too after I refused. Mum and dad weren't at home, thankfully. Tun-Petunia was. One minute we were rowing about _something_ and the next about ten of them appeared in the lawn. Voldemort was there too. Petunia-she...she didn't know who they were. She thought they were probably some people I knew. She realized something was off the minute he started speaking, though. After I refused, he-well, he wasn't particularly happy. Said some crap about coming back and making me change my mind or something. I-well, I might have said something along the lines of seeing to him before he did." James, who had been listening in shocked silence, grinned now, admittedly a little proudly. She closed her eyes, as if remembering a very painful scene. "All ten of them took out their wands but he stopped them. I don't know what he signaled to them but the next moment they all disapparated. I got a bit distracted and that's what just he wanted. He attacked Tuney. She-" she choked- "she fell back and didn't move. I-" A tear escaped, despite her will. "I didn't know what to do. And then he laughed. And I don't know what came over me, but I attacked him. He disapparated though. Petunia-she wouldn't breathe. And just then my parents came back. It took about half an hour to fix her back completely."

Another tear went streaming down her face.

"And it was all my fault."

James was still shocked. Not much at what he'd heard; he knew Lily was brave, one of the bravest people he had ever seen. But that's precisely why he was shocked. To see her cry. He'd never seen her cry before.

He looked at her, cupped her face with his free hand and said gently. "It's not your fault Lils!"

She sighed. "You can understand how she hates me even more than she did before- if that's even possible."

James moved his free arm around her and brought her even more close, if that was humanly possible.

"Well, then that's her bad, isn't it?"

She looked at him and smiled slightly trough her tears. She closed her eyes and laid her head on top of his. He tightened his arm around her.

She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Thanks."

"What for?"

"Just like that."

"Well, you're welcome. Just like that."

She grinned, but it turned into a slightly curious smile after a moment.

"Your eyes, they're hazel, not brown. I never noticed," she whispered.

"Hmm?" he whispered back.

Their eyes were closing slightly and they were leaning, slowly towards-

_BAM!_

"What are you two doing?"

"You should be asking yourself that," James told Pringle.

"Excuse me?" Pringle said in a dangerous tone.

"Exactly! What do you think you're doing stuffing these things in this rat hole?"

Pringle looked about him for a second or two, then grumbled and bent over to pick up the fallen trophies, creating enough space for the two to get up.

"Move along, you troublesome kids."

While he was busy fussing over how to arrange the trophies, Lily and James ran out of the room, before he could change his mind.

"That was fun." Lily commented.

"Sarcasm? Total sarcasm?" James teased.

She laughed.

* * *

><p>"Prongs! LilyFlower!" Sirius bounced up and down.<p>

"Padfoot, old dog, how have you been?" James asked dramatically.

"Just fine, Prongsie-poo. But where have the two of you been, eh?" He winked.

"Detention, Sirius." Lily yawned.

His eyes lit up. "Ooh, where?"

"Trophy room,"James said, wincing slightly.

His face fell a bit. "Oh, that isn't so much fun."

Lily patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

Eva smirked. "Good thing you guys came. He's been eating our heads for the past whole hour!"

"Hey!"

James laughed as they made their way towards the couch by the fire and promptly sat down.

"So what did you guys do today?" Lily asked, yawning again.

"Oh." Sirius smiled wickedly. "You'll find out in the Great Hall tomorrow morning."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Do I want to know?"

"Yes, I know you do!" Sirius winked.

"I can't believe you guys actually planned a prank without me!" James said, outraged.

"Well, you were busy with the Head duties or whatever it is, weren't you? And this couldn't have been postponed. So we had to, Prongsie-"

"Call me that _one more time_, Sirius Orion Black."

Sirius smirked. Mary rolled her eyes.

"Remus are you _done _with the book yet?"

"No Mar. I just got it this afternoon, remember?"

"Yeah but...couldn't you like, read it faster?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'm doing the best I can."

"Which book are we talking about?" Lily asked.

"Some book on Potions Remus got from the library." Said Peter.

"Yeah and there are apparently only two copies in the school library, or so it's said," said Isa.

"And someone already took the first copy before we went," grumbled Mary.

"I'n not particularly interested in potions, but there was this recipe of brewing this concoction of Veritaserum, which Slughorn can ask us to make any day now. So I thought I'd read something in advance. But the book seems interesting. Uh...leaving the few um, dangerous potions aside, that is." Remus said.

Lily and James looked at each other.

"Well," Sirius yawned, "I'm off to bed. Special day tomorrow. Gotta save some energy. Night, folks."

"Yeah I'll be heading off too," Eva said.

"Yeah me too," Remus and Isa said at the same time.

"Well, looks like we'll meet you guys tomorrow morning then," Mary said to Lily and James as the group slowly shuffled out of the Heads' common room.

"What do you reckon is there in the book?" James asked, once everyone had moved out.

"I dunno. We'll just have to borrow it from Remus and see." Lily said.

"Yeah," he yawned.

Lily conjured their sleeping bags and changed their clothes into night wear. They lay down for several minutes, tossing and turning(not quite literally, given their hands' situation) both not being able to sleep.

"Lils?"

"Hmm?" she said drowsily.

"What are you thinking about?"

She looked at him.

"How do you know I'm thinking about anything?"

"Because I know you."

"Well, I was-" she sighed. "I was just thinking about the days when Petunia and I could stand each other for more than five minutes."

"It will be alright one day, you know. She'll come around. See you for what you are. She's just jealous. But it will all work out, one day. Really."

She look at him and smiled softly.

"Thanks, James." She yawned. "Good night," she said, as sleep finally overcame her.

"Anytime." He closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Lils."

And they slept, facing each other with their hands joined together safely, right between them.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Aaaah! Okay, how do I even apologize? I've lost track of the number of months it has been since the last update, now. :P**_

_**Alright, first and foremost, I am EXTREMELY sorry! But my computer, writing specifically, got banned. First terminals have just ended and I've just been given permission to write again! :(**_

_**So I am truly, very sorry for the extremely late update. **_

_**Also, coming to this chapter, well I just started writing it yesterday! So this chapter is basically what I could write in a day and a half! :P But, well...it had already been toooo long, so I had to update!**_

_**So I had to really rush with this chapter so I'm not sure if I did it any justice or not. **_

_**But well, I'll leave that for you guys to decide! :D**_

_**PLEASE REVIEW! You know, it's really disappointing to see that you put so much of time into writing and then just a handful of you guys actually leave a review. People ARE reading, I've checked the stats. So please, if you liked it or hated it or felt something was missing or anything, please leave a review and let me know. :) So many of you put it on alert subscription or favorite it, but hardly any of you bother to review. It really makes you loose interest in writing and posting, because people don't really give much feedback. So, whatever it is, positive review or negative, please do give it. It all helps, really. :)**_

_**Also, feel free to suggest any ideas for Sirius's upcoming prank in a review. ;)**_

_**As to why Voldemort would like to recruit a muggle born, well, wasn't it given in the book that Lily and James both defied him three times? He had tried to recruit both of them once before they had left Hogwarts. So that's why he was trying to recruit Lily. And even though she WAS a muggle-born, she was an extremely powerful witch. And don't worry, the recruiting James part will come up in due course. :D  
>And, well...I'm not entirely sure about the recruiting DURING school thing, but the book did say three times...well anyway I've tried to stick to canon as much as possible. :P<br>**_

_**So that's it for now, I guess. :P**_

_**_**REVIEW! Please? :3 The Butterbeer offer still holds!  
>Cheers,<br>RainHolly**_**_


	8. Of Banters and Discussions

**Chapter eight!**

**Of Banters and Discussions**

* * *

><p><em>He was running along a dark corridor, panting and completely out of breath. He halted for just a second, caught his breath, and started running again. He couldn't stop...he <em>wouldn't_ stop. No, he had to save her. He couldn't lose her._

_His footsteps echoed across the hall, in the eerie silence of the castle. It was unusually quiet...just like the calm before a heavy storm. _

_He skidded to a stop at the end of the corridor, temporarily forgetting how to breathe. _

_There she was, her eyes the same beautiful shade of green that he'd always gotten lost in. She was perfection in herself._

_But then he noticed the other horrifying details too. He eyes had lost the sparkle, and were so full of hopelessness and fear, two things he'd never seen previously. Her clothes were tattered. She was tied onto a chair and gagged. Even from the distance, she saw him. He tried to convey his thoughts into words, but her eyes said only one thing: Run!_

_Two people dressed in black robes stood beside her, one on each side. Even beneath the masks, he could sense their sneers, cold and malicious. Between them was Lily, looking afraid for the first time since he'd ever seen her. _

_James vision clouded. Anger filled his head like lava, waiting to be sprouted out of a volcano with such fierceness, that it could wipe out all signs of humanity. His stomach boiled with uninhibited anger. How dare they_ touch_ her? How dare they even _think _of laying a finger on her?_

_"He has not come yet," the cloaked figure of the left said. "You said he would come."_

_"And so he will," said the person on the right. "You know these lovesick fools, always falling prey."_

_"But I don't think this one's coming any time soon," the left one sneered. "It's been an hour since we've had her here, now."_

_"Patience! I have full faith that he will come. And, let's say that he doesn't show up, then we'll finish off with this one here."_

_"Alright. A shame, though. She's quite the looker," the guy on the left sneered, reaching his hand towards her face. "Aren't you gir-"_

_He didn't get to complete, because at that moment, someone screamed and charged at him. James stood there with his wand drawn, with a murderous look etched across face. Lily was writhing violently, the look in her eyes urgent. She was asking him to go and save himself. He stepped forward and Lily shook her head, thrashing violently._

_"I'm not leaving you." James yelled, blasting another curse off._

_But the dueling stopped as soon as it had started. Another figure had stepped out of the shadows and was standing directly behind Lily's chair, pointing his wand just below her chin._

_"Drop you wand," the person barked. There was something familiar about that voice...like he ought to have known the person saying those words, but that didn't matter to him right now. _

_He dropped his wand and it fell with a click sound._

_"Very good," said the figure who had been fighting him. "I understand now why the Master would want the boy. And the girl, of course. Put up quite a fight, didn't she?" he asked, and for the first time James noticed the bruises all along his arm and neck. He had no doubts who gave them to him._

_"Leave her!" James yelled.'_

_"Oh, but I can't do that, Potter." the person said. "The Master was very specific about this. You were both to be brought alive."_

_James started running forward, but ropes appeared out of nowhere, pinning him to that place. He trashed around like an animal chained by force, but couldn't free himself._

_"Master, however, said that one of you could be sacrificed if the other refused to...cooperate, shall we say. So, watch your hands_ and_ your mouth, boy."_

_James halted, eyes growing wide in fear. No bleeding way was he going to let anyone touch Lily. But what was he supposed to do, tied up and helpless?_

_James dropped wand, which the two figures had carelessly forgotten to pick up, was lying not very far behind him. If only he could tilt little backwards and get his hand on it- a distraction. That's what he needed._

_The person pointing his wand at Lily muttered something, but the other guy waved it away impatiently. _

_"No one will notice you were gone, you coward. If you want to prove your allegiance to the Master, then you had better be well aware of what all you need to do."_

_"I-I know. But I was j-just wondering if w-we should l-let them-"_

_"No one cares what you think, boy," said the cloaked figure coldly. "Just do what you're asked to do."_

_"Y-y-yes," the other boy stammered._

_There was still a feeling nagging James at the back of his mind, like he was supposed to know this person, but he put it aside. He got the distraction that he had wanted. _

_In one fluid movement, he reached behind him, hands still tied and grasped his wand between his entwined fingers. He lunged sideways, so that his wand pointed at the guy holding Lily down and with all his strength, he shouted: "Stupify!"_

_The guy fell down, his wand falling on Lily's lap. She struggled to free her hand._

_"Wait!" James shouted, as he ducked a spell thrown on him by the cloaked figure._

_"Oh, you're going to pay for this, Potter!" he spat._

_And before James could grasp what was going on, the guy turned on to Lily and yelled coldly: "Avada Ke-"_

_NO!" James shouted, running as fast as his tied up legs could carry him._

_"-davra!"_

_"_NO!" James yelled.

"James! What- oh, dear. _James?"_

It took him a while to notice his surroundings. He was in the Heads' common room. He had shot bolt upright from his sleeping bag and removed the blankets in the process. But the only thing that really caught his attention was the small hand, firmly clasped in his own.

"James-Merlin! What happened?"

James didn't reply. He felt like his mouth was filled with sand. He took a shaky breath, and in one single movement, he threw his free arm around her and brought her as close to him as humanly possible.

Her hand joined to James' was lying in an awkward position, but Lily didn't care. She wrapped her other arm around him and held him.

His body shook with sobs. Tears ran down his face and on her neck. Lily couldn't believe it. She had never seen him cry.

"Shh. James, it's going to be okay," she promised.

His hands grew tighter around her, but she didn't care. She kept mumbling incoherent things in his ear until his shaking subsided. The tears still didn't stop, though. She felt her heart break when she heard him cry; those heart wrenching sobs. Never before had she seen him lose control like this, to simply give in to the sorrow.

"It's going to be alright. It's okay, James."

She felt him take a shaky breath. "I-I don't want to lose you. Ever."

She wouldn't deny that her heart sped up when he said that. She tightened her own arm around him and gave the one she was stuck to a little squeeze.

"Like you would ever leave me alone," she said, trying her best to sound sarcastic.

He chuckled, a little laugh mixed with worry, shock and so many more feelings she couldn't quite place. But what on earth could make him like this?

She held him till he relaxed slightly and reluctantly removed his arm, though he didn't make any efforts to put a little space between them.

She cupped his face gently, again, surprising both James and herself. _'He's hurt,' she said to herself. 'There's nothing more to it.' _But was there?

"What happened?" she asked softly.

He closed his eyes and shuddered in voluntarily. Then he started. When he got to the part when Lily had dropped from the chair, not moving, he choked up again.

Lily threw her arm around him and closed her eyes briefly. She couldn't believe he had been so worried and crying because of...well, her. She had always thought his insistent asking her out had been a game, to amuse him. But today, all her previous misconceptions were thrown out of the window. He had started shaking again, his arm tight against her.

"James, it was just a dream," she whispered gently, though she herself was pretty shaken up. First that hellhound, then those creepy Slytherins and now this dream...all different and seemingly random events, but somehow they felt...connected. Somehow...

"I-I know. I'm s-sorry, I just-"

"Shh. It's alright. I'm alive." That calmed him down a bit. _"And_ about to smack you behind the head and you _ever_ put on that ruddy cologne again." That calmed him down completely.

He laughed. She decided that she quite liked it, when he laughed.

She smiled, "The others will be down here any minute. And knowing Sirius Black, I suggest that it would be best if we got ready while we still have the chance," she whispered dramatically.

He chuckled. "You're the boss," he said and allowed himself to be hoisted.

Lily waved her wand and the sleeping bags, along with the blankets, vanished. He still marveled at how easily she cast spells non-verbally, and still had trouble with a few Transfiguration spells (Lily had asked him to help her with a few spells that she said were bothering her). If someone like her could do Charms so easily, a subject that drove him nuts, then it seemed very odd that they should have trouble with a subject like Transfiguration. Adding to the fact that it was_ Lily_, made it seem all the more unbelievable to him. And of course, Transfiguration just happened to be his best subject.

"What would you like to adorn today, Potter?"

James barked a laugh. "Anything to match your outfit, m'lady, Evans."

Lily burst out laughing. "M'lady Evans?" she choked in between bouts of laughter.

James turned a little red, but kept his cool, composed look. "Now, would you mind changing our clothes, m'lady Ev-"

He stopped short, laughing on his own stupidity along with Lily. The morning's tension swept away, and James enjoyed the moment.

"Right," Lily choked. "Clothes. How about the uniform, eh Potter?" she asked, raising one eyebrow suggestively again and again, sending James into another bout of laughter.

"You-" he wheezed -"look so cute!" He doubled over.

Lily joined in, though she had no idea why she was laughing so hard.

They both calmed down eventually. Lily changed their night clothes to their uniform.

"But our uniform is so boring!" he pouted.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, unless you want to enter the class, first being McGonagall's by the way, looking like an out of place pop singer-" James snickered -"I suggest you just stick to the uniform."

"Well, as you say, m'lady Evans."

And that ended the "dress-talk" for the day, as the two seventh years broke into peals of laughter.

* * *

><p>"You hear that, Moony?" Sirius whispered, rather unnecessarily.<p>

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, Padfoot, I do. Now shut up."

Sirius pouted, "But Moooo-"

"Shut it, Sirius!" Eva snapped. "Let me hear!"

Sirius scowled and opened his mouth.

"Well, if-"

"Sirius!" five people whisper-yelled at the same time.

"Oh, all right. Be that way." Sirius grumbled.

"Is he upset?" Peter asked nervously.

Eva rolled her eyes. "He will be just fine, Peter. Now let me listen!"

Six people pressed their ears against the door; oh, they had already given the password, but on hearing voices from inside, they quickly shut it back...well, almost. They heard faint voices, but couldn't decipher anything. They pressed their ears harder, when Remus suddenly hit his palm on his forehead, startling the other four; Sirius excluded, as he was still too busy being all grumpy.

He waved his wand and muttered something silently. Suddenly they could hear Lily and James' voices distinctly.

Everyone looked at him in amazement, even Sirius who raised an eyebrow.

"Voice enhancement charm," he muttered, as he stowed away his wand.

"Brilliant." Isa smiled. Remus grinned back.

"Cool." Mary muttered, before pressing her ear against the door again.

"-to match your outfit, m'lady, Evans," they could hear James say. Then they heard someone laugh, obviously Lily.

"My-lady-" Eva waited to smother a laugh -"Evans?"

Everyone burst out laughing, but they were careful to keep their voices low. Remus shook his head, albeit a little fondly. He ever understood how he had ended up with these people, but he wouldn't really have it another way.

"Is he usually this daft?" Mary asked.

"Nah," Sirius started. "Much more than this."

"Yeah rich, that coming from you, Padfoot." Remus snorted.

Sirius smirked, "I'll have you know, Moony dearest, that-"

"_What the hell did you call me?" _Remus asked indignantly.

"-that, _I_-"

"Hey, you lot! What the ruddy hell are you doing, hiding behind my sacred place? It's a disgrace, I tell you! An absolute disgrace!" the Heads' tower's portrait all but screamed.

"Hey, calm down dude! It's-" Isa started, but was cut off by the portrait.

"I most certainly will not calm down, young lady. And what in the devil's name is a dood? Is it some sort of vile language that you youngsters use?" the portrait sputtered in indignation.

"Well, you see," Sirius started, "a _dood_ is a nasty illness which affects the functioning of the brai-"

"Why, you sorry little-"

And before he could continue threatening Sirius, a voice broke in.

"Who is there?" James asked.

"Your damsel, Prongsiekins."

"Get lost, Sirius."

The rest of them laughed, minus Sirius of course.

"Oi!"

They opened the door and walked in, well, more like barged in, to find Lily and James all dressed, looking on, amused.

"Well, that's a way to greet your best friend." Sirius grumbled.

James rolled his eyes. "If you really want better treatment, then I'd suggest that you improve your eavesdropping skills."

Remus and Eva chuckled.

"All of you."

Remus coughed. "Right. Well, I told you it was a bad idea, guys."

Peter turned towards James. "Yeah, remove the 'a' and put a 'my' instead."

"It was _not_ my- oh, whatever. Yes, it was my idea." Remus sighed.

"Very poor judgement on your part, Mr. Lupin. Never would I have expected this from you." Lily said, mimicking McGonagall's voice so perfectly, even the old Transfigurtion teacher would have been astonished.

Remus laughed quietly. "Well, sorry to disappoint, _m'lady Evans."_

And everyone burst out laughing again, leaving James, who was turning redder by the second.

"You guys are _dead!_" he said.

"Yeah, come save your damsel, Prongieni-"

He didn't get to complete his sentence because a hysterical Head Boy cut him off and started chasing him all around the common room.

* * *

><p>Breakfast was a comparatively uneventful affair. Peter dropped his pumpkin juice over Mary's new shoes, and she chased the poor boy out of the hall with her shoes in her hands.<p>

Sirius was trying to balance two spoons on his chin. Remus was reprimanding him and trying to read a book at the same time. Eva and Isa were having a heated conversation about Witch Weekly's latest edition's front cover.

Lily was alternating between rolling her eyes at, first Sirius, and then her two best friends. James was alternating between stealing glances at Lily and trying to eat with his left hand.

But this was all routine. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Look! The mail's here!" shrieked a little first year girl.

Hundreds of owls came swooping down the hall elegantly. Well, almost all of them, leaving one tawny brown colored owl who was delivering a letter to a sixth year Ravenclaw.

Letters came for all of them, leaving Peter whose parents had gone to Albania for vacations and Sirius, who never really did get any letter from his family. (Long story...his family consisted of a bunch of twisted Voldemort-followers, and Sirius had left them in his fifth year and had been living with the Potter's ever since. So he'd basically been disowned after that. First being sorted in Gryffindor...well, that had been the last straw.)

Ellina, Lily's owl, dropped a letter neatly on Lily's lap. Ellina was a little cream colored owl.

"Thanks, Elli." Lily said and offered the owl some nuts, which she nibbled contentedly for a while and then flew away to the Owlery.

Lily tried to open the letter with just one hand, but to no avail. James, who had been going through the Daily Prophet, noticed and proceeded to help her to tear open the letter. Once they managed to open the seal, she took out the letter from the parchment and started reading. She frowned when she read the first line, and the crease didn't vanish even after she completed reading the whole thing.

"Lily?" James asked gently.

She didn't reply. She was staring at the letter, as though willing it to go up in flames.

"Lils?" he prodded on.

She shook suddenly, as if waking up from a trance.

"Hmm?"

"What is it?"

"I-huh? Oh, um, nothing. I-"

She broke off and handed the letter to James. His brow creased in worry and anxiety, because he had never seen Lily get upset so easily. He looked over at the others and found their expressions mirroring that of his own.

James looked at the letter curiously. It read:

_Lily,_

_I'm getting married to Vernon in a few days, by which time I assume your winter vacations will have started. I have been engaged to Vernon for two months now. He proposed just after he got promoted.  
>The wedding will take place on 30th December, and the reception on 31st.<br>Come, if you can._

_Petunia_

"Oh," was all James said.

He looked at Lily cautiously, but she was still looking completely spaced. He knew very well that she and her sister had a very rocky relationship. And after what Lily had told him...about what had happened last year...

He passed the letter to Eva and turned towards Lily.

"But...it's good, isn't it? I mean, it shows that she's forgiven you-not that there _was_ anything to forgive you for in the first place- but-"

"It _shows_-" Lily hissed -"that my mother has once again succeeded in trying to force Petunia to make amends with me." She snorted, though no one missed the small gleam of sadness in her eyes. "As if."

"But, come on Lils-" James started.

"No James," her lips trembled slightly. "Didn't you _read_ it? 'Come if you can.' Don't you see? She doesn't want me there, not that I'd want to go to anything Vermin-related anyway." James chuckled slightly, but his expression remained concerned.

"She's right, James." Eva muttered darkly. "Trust me, I've seen the horse-face. I still don't understand how she can be related to Lils. She is the definition of muggle. The paragon of muggle. The _epitome_ of muggle."

Lily laughed slightly. "Alright, Eva. I know you've learnt your synonyms."

Eva rolled here eyes. "Well, that's a way to say thank you."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You really want to get me started?"

Eva laughed. "No, thanks. I think I'll pass."

"It's alright, Lilybunny." Sirius didn't falter under the halfhearted glare she sent his way. "I know how it feels to have crappy siblings." He glared over at the Slytherin table. "Trust me."

Lily looked at him sadly. "Two in the group, huh?"

Sirius laughed. "I never thought I'd live to witness the day when I could proudly tell people that I was in the same group as the elusive Lily Evans."

Lily chuckled. "Shut it, dog boy."

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Are you okay, though?"

"I guess," she sighed. "It's okay. I'm tired of trying to come to terms with her when she doesn't even deserve it. I'm not going to make any more excuses for her now. She-she doesn't understand." She gripped the table with her free hand. "Just blaming everything on me. Must to convenient. She lost something? Dang! Lily must have voodooed it somewhere! But I'm sick of everything now. If she can't accept who I am, then it's her problem."

She took a breath, turned towards the rest of them, raised her eyebrows slightly and shook her head.

"Well, that was cheerful."

Everyone laughed lightly, the tension evaporating. It just happened that way somehow; they were so used to seeing Lily cheerful and all smiles; when Lily was happy, the general atmosphere was happy.

James smiled. "And anyway, she is the one missing out, isn't she?"

Lily smiled at him. She didn't know what to say, but sometimes there really was no need to put everything in words.

"So," James started. "Are you going to go?"

Lily sighed. "Honestly, I really don't know."

"You should." Sirius said.

Seven pairs of eyes turned op him in surprise. But he didn't notice and went on.

"I mean, I know how it feels to have pain in the neck siblings, but you should do it. For your mom and dad. I mean, it is kind of a big day for you sister-" Lily opened her mouth, but he shook his head and went on -"I know, I know. And you won't be doing this for your sister. You will be doing this for your parents. And for yourself. We never realize the value of something until we have lost it. Trust me, I have first hand experience on this. And who knows? Everything might even turn out to be alright. You've got to give it a shot."

Silence. Complete silence. Seven pairs of wide eyes regarded him.

James was the first one to break free of his trance.

"_What the bleeding hell, Padfoot?"__  
><em>

"What?" He asked defensively.

"Every sodding time I ever asked you for help to get Lily to talk to me, all you would give me were crappy suggestions like 'jumping off the Astronomy Tower'-"

Lily and Sirius cut in between at the same time.

"_Excuse me_?" Lily asked, aghast, giving her best "Lily Evans is out for blood" look.

"Oh, come off it. You were the one stupid enough to go through with it." Sirius said.

"Wow, Sirius." Isa said. "That's the second smart thing you've said all day. You should be proud!"

Sirius smiled, evidently pleased with himself.

"-_and,"_ James continued forcibly, "then you have the nerve to go ahead and give good suggestions in _my_ presence?"

Sirius snickered. "Well-" he started, but he didn't get the chance to complete. Lily yelped, as James jumped up, pretending to be moody and said, "I'll be down by the lake, trying to drown myself. See you lot later."

With that, he slouched out of the hall, dragging along a very confused, slightly angry and amused redhead in his wake.

"Pass me the juice, Wormtail."

Everyone stared at Sirius, like he'd suddenly grown another pair of eyebrows.

"Whaa?" he asked, his mouth full with smashed eggs.

"Shouldn't you be going and seeing how James is doing?" Eva asked and rolled her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she had _actually_ been impressed with the shaggy haired boy less than a minute ago.

"He's just kidding, Eva," Remus said casually. "You know how these two are with dramatics."

"Oh, gee! You don't say?"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Well, I guess I should go and check, anyway. He might actually try to drown himself...won't be the first time." Sirius mock sighed and left the six laughing Gryffindors sitting in the Great Hall.

* * *

><p>"Silence!" Professor McGonagall said. To no one's surprise, the chattering continued.<p>

"SILENCE!" she barked. The talking died down immediately.

"Now, transfiguring inanimate objects to animate ones has always been-" And that's when a laughing Sirius, a dripping wet James, and an exhausted and equally wet, yet slightly amused Lily walked in.

"What happened this time?" McGonagall sighed.

Apparently, she was used to the boys' antics by now.

"And Miss Evans?" McGonagall raised an eyebrow. Not that she wasn't used to the Head Girl participating in...interesting acts, not at all. But to see Lily Evans looking amused and, dare she think it, flustered in the vicinity of James Potter and Sirius Black, well more of James per say, was a tad bit surprising.

"Nothing, Professor. I tried to drown myself." James said.

"And what were you doing, Mr. Black?"

"I was watching them and laughing, Professor."

"Yes, of course you were. But if Mr. Black here did not prevent you, which I would have guessed even if he hadn't shared this information, then why did you resurface, Mr. Potter? Considering you had a very strong reason that led to such an extreme act, of course?"

"I realized my hand was stuck to Lily's, Professor."

The female population of the class swooned. The male population of the class grinned. Sirius snickered. Lily rolled her eyes, cheeks turning slightly pink. James' face got slightly red.

Now Professor McGonagall wanted to humor them.

"And why exactly did that alter the functioning of your brain?"

"Brain or heart?" Sirius muttered.

James turned redder, but regained his suave attitude a moment later.

"You see Professor, the Giant Squid appeared just as I realized I had this lovely lady, quite literally, on my arm. And Lily dear was kind enough to let me know of my...competition-" he paused, snorting -"a few years ago. I would have to be a fool, plunging deeper withing the waters that held the...person-" he snorted harder this time -"who is a likely threat to steal my fair maiden. How could I let that happen?"

The entire class was laughing, barring the Slytherins of course with whom, unfortunately, the Gryffindor's had to share this class.

McGonagall's lips twitched. "Very well. Take your seats." She waved her wands and their clothes dried. Lily mentally kicked herself for not having thought of it earlier.

Professor McGonagall massaged her temples. And then people thought teaching was easy. If only they knew the the seventh year students belonging in her house.

"You're insufferable, Potter." Lily said.

"Come on...you lie, Evans." James smirked.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Yes, I don't. I know."

"You cheated!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did not!"

"Did too-hey!"

"Yes, I know Lily." James stuck out his tongue.

"You can't use my own trick against me!"

"I can!"

"Cannot!"

"I can!"

"Canno-oh, what the hell." Lily sighed.

James grinned.

"I win!"

"Yeah, sure big boy." Lily snorted. James stuck out his tongue.

"You know," Sirius started casually, "if you two are done flirting, could you focus on entertaining me, now?"

"We were not _flirting_, Black. And I'm pretty sure you can keep yourself entertained. You're _barking_ good at it."

James burst out laughing.

"Oh, har har har. Very funny, Lily." Sirius said, though the sarcasm effect was lost when he too, started chuckling.

"What is so amusing, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall snapped.

"Nothing, Professor."

McGonagall opened her mouth, but apparently thought better of it and closed it. There was no use trying to put sense in this boy.

"Just sit down, Potter," she sighed.

And the rest of the class went on rather normally.

* * *

><p>"What about the Weird Sisters?"<p>

"I don't know Lils, they are, well...weird."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, James. That would explain the name."

They were sitting on the ground before the couch by the fire. The rest of the day had passed in a blur, worrying about the Ball arrangements and trying to make it through all the classes without any more detentions. It was now night time and Remus was on patrol duty with a Ravenclaw prefect. Sirius and Eva had gone off to the kitchens. Mary and Isa were discussing their outfits for the Ball. (Lily rolled her eyes. How very typical of them.) Peter was still in the hospital wing after having been hexed by Mary that morning, the poor thing.

So that left James and Lily alone in the Heads' common room and they decided to discuss the upcoming Winter Ball.

"But I still don't like their music much."

"That won't be the only band's music we will be having," Lily pointed out. "Nor will they be the opening song, of course. We'll just fit the songs somewhere in between. Besides, they are like...a new venture. We can save them some songs, right? Who knows, we might be the first ones to hear the band and we could brag about it someday, considering they got famous, you know."

James snorted. "As if."

"Just because you don't like punk music-"

"Because it's unnecessarily loud!"

"-_doesn't_ mean that others don't like it either, James!"

"_You_ don't like it, Lily!" he pointed out.

"But there are _other_ people in this castle who apparently enjoy it."

"Yeah, okay," he conceded. "But what about the band? For the opening and closing songs and all?"

"We'll ask Dumbledore. I'm sure he has contacts."

"And he has taste too."

"Come on, James. Eating habits don't necessarily show your overall opinions."

"Yes...hmm, of course."

"Why did you even make the comment?" she rolled her eyes.

"Dunno."

"James?"

"Hmm?"

She turned towards him; well, however much of movement their joined hands would allow anyway.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he said.

"You're a terrible liar."

"Am not!" he protested. "I lie to the teachers all the time!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "The only teacher you have ever actually managed to convince is Binns, and trust me, that's not a feat you should brag about."

"Yeah, well-"

"What is it?" she pressed.

"I-" he sighed. "I was just thinking about...you know, the dream..." She felt his hand grip hers ever tighter.

"James," she started gently, "it was just a dream. I told you not to hold much water over-"

"But, Lily! Don't you see? That dream showed me exactly the two things I'm afraid of," he muttered, looking quite vulnerable.

"And...what-what are they?"

He looked at her. "Someone I know betraying me and losing someone I love."

Lily tried to, really she did, but she couldn't look away. Did he mean-?

"James, it's-it's alright. No one's going anywhere, okay? Everyone's here."

He nodded. "Yeah, I-I know. I'm sorry, I guess I'm being paranoid."

"And what was with the betraying thing?"

"Oh, that. Yes, that-that guy who had his wand pointed at y-at-at you. Well, I thought I recognized his voice. It was very vague, but I was so sure there was some sort of connection."

Lily felt slightly disturbed, but she tried to bury it. "It was just a dream, James," she said gently. "Let's forget about it, yeah?"

"Yeah, alright." He smiled at her. "Thanks."

"What for?"

"Just like that," he shrugged.

"Welcome, I guess."

"Why did you think of it suddenly, though?"

"Well, we were talking about Dumbledore...and it just made me realize how much that old guy does for us, you know. We never really acknowledge it."

"Okay, _now_ you're scaring me James. What happened to you?"

He stuck out his tongue.

They worked in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. The only noise heard was the occasional scratching of their quills.

"What about the food, though?" James asked.

Lilt rolled her eyes. "Honestly, is there anything else you think about?"

"Why, jealous are we?"

"Yeah, very," she scoffed.

"Well, at least you're not in denial anymore."

"You know, there are these coaching classes that I know...to train people in the art of sarcasm...using it _and_ deciphering it. I think you should try it out."

James sat up, his eyes gleaming. "You mean-you're _actually_ giving your secret away to me?"

Lily laughed. "Good. See, I mention it once and you already start getting the hang of it."

James laughed and then shook his head.

"You're without a doubt the most interesting person I've ever seen."

She raised her eyebrows. "How so?"

"Because you're you, I guess."

Lily looked at him.

"That's the best reason I could give you. Anything else would have been undermining the whole point, you know."

"Flattery will get you nowhere in life, Potter."

"Well, a bloke's gotta try, Evans."

She shook her head but smiled nonetheless.

"_C__oming_ back to-"

"Food, yeah."

James chuckled. "Well, yes. I think we should finalize the dessert options. I mean, the Ball is what, two days from now?"

"Merlin, yes. Yes it is," she sighed. "I've always hated dances."

"Why?"

"Well, not dance, per say. Just this dressing up and being all polite-"

"Which is _extremely_ unlike you, Lilykins, I know."

"Har har har. Anyway, and then you have to slow dance." She shuddered. "I hate sow dancing."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"I had to endure three hours of slow dancing practice with this highly irritating guy-" James' shoulders tensed -"back when I was eight." He relaxed. "Trust me, he'd eat like a pig and then-" she shuddered again. "Let's just say that sort of killed this slow dancing thing for me."

"Well, we'll just have to change that opinion for you, huh? Not that I'm a big fan myself. I mean I can't da-I mean, I don't really like dancing."

"Yeah, sure." Lily snorted.

"It's true!" he insisted.

"Yes, James. It sure is," she said, as though speaking to a five year old.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, coming back to desserts. What all are your preferences?"

"Well, I suppose-"

"Wait, let me write it down!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "With which hand?" she asked dryly.

James noticed the problem and groaned. Lily muttered a spell and the quill which had been resting in James' lap jumped up in the air and positioned itself just above the parchment.

James grinned. "You're the best!"

Lily smirked. "I know. Now can I continue?"

He stuck out his tongue. "Yeah, go on."

"Okay, so let's have...a chocolate gateau, Blancmange, Knickerbocker glory-"

"The _what?"_ James snorted.

"It's just a name. Besides, it's actually quite delici-oh, sod it. I didn't mean it like that!" she said to a laughing James.

He tried (and failed miserably, by the way) to pull a straight face. "Right, and we _have _to have treacle tart, of course. And self propelling custard pie, apple tart, cheese meringue pie..." he went on , the quill scribbling on his parchment.

"Oh and lemon cheesecake for Dumbledore. He had it in some muggle store, I suppose, but he's been barmy over it since last summer. That's the password to his office too."

James snorted. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with such ridiculous passwords."

"It seems like _someone's_ forgotten the password of the Heads' lavatory. What was it? Slytherin sucks?" she teased.

James laughed. "That was the best password ever. No Slytherin will ever be able to sneak in."

Lily grinned. "Yeah, whatever. So, I guess this settles your ardent desire for the finalization of desserts, then. We'll keep on adding all other items."

"Yes, ma'am," he saluted.

"Well, someone's happy."

"I'm always happy around food."

"And food related topics," she pointed out dryly.

He grinned. She yawned.

"I think it's enough for today. Let's worry about the rest tomorrow."

She stood up and conjured their sleeping bags, and since they had already magicked their uniform to their night clothes, they settled in their respective beds.

"Alright...and you _should_ go to sleep early. It's rather difficult to wake you up in the morning."

She mock gasped. "You lie!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

She laughed quietly. "How long do you think we can keep up with this fight?"

"Till the time I don't win."

"Oh, please. You give yourself way too much credit."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do-oh, forget it. You're never going to give up."

He grinned victoriously. "I win!"

She yawned as she turned around to settle herself more comfortably. "_No_, you cheat."

"All is fair in love and war, Evans." James said as he rested his head more comfortably on his pillow.

"And what exactly, is this?"

He looked at their joined hands between their separate sleeping bags, and smiled.

"A bit of both."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hello there! And here's presenting chapter eight. _**

**_This is all that I could do in a day and a half. Why, you wonder, just a day and a half, when the last update was so long ago? Well, to answer that in one word: school. -_-_**

**_It's kept me so busy, I couldn't even open my account before yesterday! And then when I started writing...well, I just couldn't stop. It had been soo long and just sitting down with my laptop and writing felt so...good. :3_**

**_Though I really have no idea how this chapter's come out. But I'll leave that for you people to decide._**

**_And yes, the dream...the 'familiar voice'...I suppose you can figure that out._**

**_And I was actually thinking of writing a little one-shot about Annabeth and Percy! Any Percy Jackson fans here? :D_**

**_So, there you have it. Chapter eight...my longest chapter yet.  
>Review, pretty please? You see, that little grey box below? It'll take you about a minute or so, but it really makes my day.<br>_****_Constant criticism is always appreciated. So many of you favorite it and put it on alert...but if you could take one minute and leave a review, so that I can actually know if it's any good or not, I'd really like it. =)_**

**_It's already night here, where I live. So have a good day/afternoon/night, depending on where you live, to everyone! =D  
>A<em>****_nd I'm not very happy with the chapter name, but I just couldn't think of anything else!_**

**_Please review! (I've just recently replenished my Butterbeer stock. Not that I'm bribing or anything. xD) Feedback is better than chocolate._**

**_Oh and a very Happy New Year to everyone!_**

**_Cheers,  
>RainHolly!<em>**


	9. Of Dreams, Meddling and Reflections

**Chapter Nine**

**Of Dreams, Meddling and Reflections**

* * *

><p><em>"Move along, you little girl."<em>

_"Ye-yes, my ladyship." stuttered a trembling maidservant, eyes flicking from that cruel, unfeeling face of Her Majesty to the polished white, spotless tiled floor in the dining hall. _

_Lady Evans stood, sneering at the frightened little woman currently crouching in front of her in shame, bending so low that her nose was almost touching the ground. _

_"No more chances will be given to you. I extended you three opportunities to prove yourself, and you blew all those three away. I've had enough of your misjudgments."_

_"B-bu-but Your Highness-"_

_"No buts, Gracy. Return to your dormitory. For the next seven days you shall be on probation."_

_Just then the wide oak doors opened to revel Lily's valet, clutching a rolled and tied up parchment in one hand._

_"The Lord is expecting you, Lady Evans."_

_"Good, I'll go right away then." She turned towards her maidservant. "We shall discuss your fate further after my meeting, Gracy. You are dismissed."_

_Gracy took another trembling bow before Lily and then hurried off from the luxuriant dining hall for one of the many doors, presumable towards her living chamber._

_Lily walked elegantly out of the hall. The various servants all stopped and bowed courteously as she walked by, but she gave them little to no attention. Her mind was currently occupied with only one thing- or rather, person- at the moment._

_He stood there by the large window, tall, lean and elegant as always. His jet black hair was as messy as usual, though not wildly so. His hazel eyes, the smooth curve of his jawline, slightly crooked nose, slightly parted lips... everything just the way she remembered. _

_"Surprising meeting you again so soon."_

_James Potter grinned- the same crooked, slightly lopsided smile. _

_"Well, good to see you too, darling," he said sarcastically. _

_Lily smiled. "I never said the reunion was good, did I, Potter? I was expecting a few more days of tranquility," she teased._

_He crossed the hall in a few long strides and before she knew it, he had enveloped her in a warm embrace. He pulled back slightly to stare into her beautiful, bright emerald eyes._

_"I've missed you," he confessed truthfully._

_"As have I, James," she replied._

Wait, what? _Lily Evans_ missed James Potter? _'What the hell is going on?'_, Lily Evans - sans the Lady title, in her half conscious, half subconscious state- thought.

'It's _your_ dream', a part of her brain said_._ Ah, yes, you see, she had reached the state of derangement where knew perfectly well that she was dreaming, but intended to take part in it anyway.

'But I don't want it to be that way', she argued_. '_I don't... do I?'

_"I can't begin to tell you how I have missed your beautiful face, my Lily."_

_Lady Lily smiled. "And my days were never complete without your handsome face consuming my vision."_

Non-dream Lily gagged internally.

_Lord Potter grinned and then slowly leaned down. Lily, eyes firmly locked with his, lifted her head up, to catch his awaiting lips in her own-_

Lily's eyes shot open as sunlight filtered in the room through the slightly open curtains.

She tried to shift from her position but then realized that something was holding her back. She turned her head slightly more towards her left, to see James Potter sleeping blissfully, her free hand clutched tightly in his left one.

Lily sat up in one swift motion, comical horror etched over her face.

James woke with a start - literally. His body had been forced to yank in an upward position by the weight in his hand.

"What the- ?" he muttered groggily.

Lily, who had been trying to make sense of her incoherent thoughts, jumped in her position on hearing his voice.

"Oh - James. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." She sighed. "Weird night."

James, though still very much sleepy, stopped rubbing his eyes and looked at her, eyes crinkling with concern.

"Why? Is something the matter?"

Lily did not reply, merely continued muttering to herself. "Need to request madame Laborynis for a potion for dreamless sleep..."

At this, James laughed. Lily looked at him, half annoyed.

"What?" she asked defensively.

"Nothing," he chuckled some more. "You're a sight to see in the morning."

"Go sell tickets, why don't you?" she replied sarcastically.

"Nope," he said firmly, looking oddly adorable. Wait, what? She sighed, resigned. Her mind had obviously been addled during the course of her sleep. "Just me. No one else, love."

She rolled her eyes. "Your concern is touching."

"Why should I be concerned? You're still the same sarcastic, not-so-morning person-ish, clumsy red-headed Lily Evans."

"Your vocabulary is stipulating."

James traced a finger lightly below her chin, making goosebumps erupt on the skin he touched.

"What are you doing?" she asked, swatting away his hand with her free one halfheartedly.

"Wiping the sarcasm oozing off your chin."

"Oh, har har, Potter. I'm in stitches over here."

"See? You haven't uttered one line, since you so _rudely_ woke me up, without sarcasm dripping off your very words."

She rolled her eyes and was about to open her mouth to respond in kind, but he had already started speaking.

"Why did you look like you'd seen a ghost, though?"

Lily rolled her eyes again. "We see one everyday, James. Magic castle, remember?"

He laughed. "Figure of speech, Lils."

"I'm impressed."

"Just following in your footsteps."

She sighed. "I had the weirdest dream in the history of... Well, the other bunch of weird dreams I've had till date. And trust me, there are many." She sighed again. "I was in this castle- and no, not Hogwarts, wearing a _gown,_ absolutely rubbish by the way... ghastly colors." She shuddered. "Oh, and acting like a complete and utter _snob, _picking on a maid." She shuddered. James laughed beside her.

"And that would be the end of the world. Lily Evans, treating people like dirt? No way, you'd sooner have the Giant Squid ballroom dancing with the merpeople."

"Why so attached to the Squid, Potter?"

James turned red. "Shut up, Evans." She laughed. "I don't like to be reminded of my poor competition."

"I assure you, Potter, it is by no means poor. You're simply delusional."

"Says the girl who dreamt she was picking on someone and described it as a nightmare."

"Okay, so maybe it sounds completely ridiculous when you say it out loud. But it was still-"

"Weird?"

"Yes!" James laughed. "I mean, I was lashing out at a chambermaid for apparently no good reason- " She squinted her eyes, "- well, that's what I gathered from the otherwise nondescript nature of the random churning of my mind."

James burst out laughing again. "And that would be _terrible_, won't it?" he asked, eyes twinkling playfully.

"Yes!" she whined. "You don't understand; it was like- being like... Petunia." She wrinkled her nose slightly.

This time, James looked slightly sympathetic, though one corner of his mouth was still lifted upwards. "How bad is that?"

"Apocalyptic," she said seriously.

"Then I suggest we get a move on," he said, making to get up. "If the world is about to end then it wouldn't do for us to stay famished any longer."

Lily laughed.

"Well, it wouldn't do to have a _g__rowing boy_ miss his meal, would it?"

James' neck turned red for the third time in the meager fifteen minutes' span since he had woken up.

"I thought we had agreed to leave that behind us," he said accusingly.

"What can I do, Potter... it manages to catch up, now and then."

James rolled his eyes. "Let's just go, Evans."

"In your night wear, Potter?" she asked innocently.

"Well, not that I don't adore yours -" Lily blushed. Her nightwear currently consisted of sky clue shorts and a halfway button down, two times bigger than her size, green shirt. She tried to fold her arms over her chest, but realized - thankfully, offering Merlin her deepest gratitude mentally - that her arm was currently attached to James and opted to glare halfheartedly at him instead. "But I don't particularly fancy gallivanting around in my boxers. And like hell will I ever let you out wearing this."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I assure you Potter that I know _quite_ a few people who would about kill to see you in all your glory," she drawled sarcastically. "And let me? Since when do I take your orders?"

"Please, Lily," he scoffed. "even if I tried I wouldn't be able to make you do something you don't want to, let alone take orders." Lily grinned satisfactorily, causing him to shake his head fondly. Of course he didn't say anything more, but he and she both knew that if anything, he was extremely possessive and protective of Lily. The though made her feel a strange sort of dread and pleasure, and she tried to push it back down to the pit of her stomach.

She sighed. Clearly, her mind was in no state to formulate coherent thoughts.

"Could this day get any weirder?"

James smirked. "Yes, it could. Coming from someone with multiple first hand experiences." She laughed. "This is a magical world, after all," he winked.

"Strange, though," James commented lightly, and Lily changed their clothes to their uniforms "Don't most girls always literally dream of... I dunno, becoming a princess and stuff?"

Lily snorted, stuffing her wand into the inside pocket of her robe. She looked him in the eye, quite seriously and said, "Such fancies are for the ones who do not have a creative enough mind." She added grudgingly, though her tone was playful. "When I was young, Potter, I wanted to be a pirate."

James looked at her for a minute before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter.

Lily shoved him with her free hand halfheartedly. "This was top secret information, Potter. Even the girls don't know this. I'm hoping I can trust you."

"Of course, you can trust me with your life, Lily," James said, still laughing, though she knew he had been quite serious. "But, seriously? A pirate?"

"What's so wrong with that?" she asked defensively. "I just loved the idea of wearing the entire... gear, you know? A pirate movie was the first one I saw, actually."

James laughed again. "I'm trying to imagine you in the whole pirate get-up." She allowed herself a chuckle at this as well, shaking her head. "We'll have to see how it looks on you, one of these days," he winked.

She smirked. "How about I change your outfit into that? I need to get back at you for changing me into a walking Christmas tree in second year anyway, and I'm still dying to see everyone's react-" James cut her off hurriedly before she could continue.

"Let's just go to breakfast."

And with that the two made their way out of the portrait hole, James walking in a rush and Lily laughing beside him.

* * *

><p>"Ah, the royalty arrives." Sirius singsonged.<p>

Lily groaned, as she and James sat down with their friends in the Great Hall. "Honestly, what is with all this royalty nonsense today?" she asked, moodily shoving some bacon in her mouth.

"Did I miss something?" Sirius asked, clearly amused.

James smirked. "Well, we have been having an... interesting morning."

Mary raised and eyebrow, voicing a question both Lily and James were sure had been on the tip of all their dirty minded friends' tongue.

"Interesting... as in?" she wagged her eyebrows.

"I had a weird dream, if you must know. Though, thank you for your indiscretion."

Everyone laughed. "Honestly, what were we supposed to think, though?" Eva asked, not removing her eyes from her copy of Witch Weekly's latest edition.

"Nothing at all. Just concentrate on your food, that's what you should have done."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Stuff your mouth, Sirius."

"Please, Lily." Remus looked up from the Prophet for the first time since they had sat down on the table. "You know this baboon's uncanny ability to take everything literally, and I really don't want another one of his disgusting eating episodes while I'm still trying to finish my own breakfast."

"You know, Remus, you speak like a mother."

Remus looked horrified, while the others laughed at his expense. "Wh- What? I do- most certainly do not-"

"Of course you do, Moony old pal."

He huffed. "It's a little thing called maturity, I'll have you know, thank you very much."

"Not exactly the prime candidate to be speaking are you, Remus?" Lily asked innocently.

Remus gaped. "Yes! _Yes_, I am! Just because I hang out with these three blithering idiots -" "Hey!" "- doesn't necessarily mean I always have to be put under the same league!"

"Traitor!" Peter yelled, scandalized.

Remus rolled his eyes. Lily, however, had stopped speaking and was staring at the Slytherin table intently.

"Er - Lils?" Mary asked.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you burning a hole in the far corner of the Great Hall?"

James looked back and saw her looking at two Slytherins who were just leaving the Great Hall.

He got up hastily, just as his friends all opened their mouths slightly, no doubt to probe further.

"We have to arrange the decorations with Flitwick before class. The man might be small but he can be pretty dangerous. We'll see you lot later."

Lily understood, nodded mutely and left the Hall with him. They walked a few minutes in silence before James nudged her gently.

"There's something wrong with those two," she sighed, jerking her thumb towards Avery and Rosier, who had just disappeared around the far end of the corridor.

"You're still thinking about that?" James asked quietly.

"Well, it's not something I can just ignore, is it?"

"I know, Lily, but I told you not to worry about it - any of it right now. Our spooking around in things has never proven to be successful, has it?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "That's because you, mister, lack a very common thing called tact."

"Sure I have loads of tact, Evans. I'm a marauder."

"Your logic is astounding-"

"Why, thank you."

" - Astoundingly stupid." she grinned cheekily. "You should wait till someone finishes their sentences, you know."

James opened his mouth, but Lily started speaking again.

"And you can't distract me from this by spurting out random nonsense. Good try, though."

"Damn, this trick always works." He sulked.

She grinned. "None of your tricks work when it comes to me, Potter. I thought you knew that."

To some it may seem like Lily had hit a soft, sore spot. But it was okay. Okay for them to talk about their past, that is. Somewhere at the end of sixth year, they had both mutually acknowledged that they had both been wrong somewhere or the other and it was best to kept the past stay where it was.

Then James had been named Head Boy and Lily had written him a letter, congratulating him. He had written back almost immediately, thanking her, congratulating her in return and asking her how her summer had been. She had written back, saying it was almost dreadfully boring. He'd replied, saying that he wasn't faring much better.

This had continued till the start of term in September.

The first two months, before this - sticky incident, had seen the two forming a closer friendship, so it was quite alright to mention their past now.

"You don't need to remind me of that. I have had enough red marks to-"

"I did _not_ hit you, Potter!"

"Yes, yes you did, Lily," he replied cheerfully.

"Lying-"

"Many times, actually."

"Despicable-"

"You were quite the violent person."

"Abominable-"

"In fact, there was this one time, in fourth year-"

"Hold it right there, Potter. You forget that you are in no position to use your wand and I have one on me-"

"Just proving my point-"

"So you should just shut up and walk to class."

"Yes, ma'am."

Lily rolled her eyes and kept walking. She turned to look at him when he did, indeed, manage to keep quiet successfully for three whole minutes. He looked smug.

"What is it, Potter?"

He looked at her and grinned crookedly - she got a sudden flashback of the scene in her dream - and said, "I _did_ manage to distract you, Lils."

And that was when she hit him on the head, previous assertions flying out of the window.

"Tomorrow," she said suddenly.

"Huh? Tomorrow what?" he asked, eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"We tail them, tomorrow. See what they're up to, as a start. Then discuss all the things that happened that day in Hogsmeade. I told you-"

"I don't want you anywhere near those slimy gits," James scowled.

"Really, James. I didn't like their conversation one bit. Whatever it is they're doing, it might be harmless. But that's a really far fetched option. And if they _are_ up to something, then I want to put an end to it."

James sighed. "I know that. All these things that have been happening-" he sighed again -"I didn't understand them one bit either. But I don't want you anywhere near this."

"It's not your decision to make, James."

"But I want to!"

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, James. As I said, it may be nothing and I might just be acting paranoid, but whatever it is, we will discuss it. In detail. Tomorrow. Deal?"

James caught her eye and shook his head resignedly.

"Deal."

"Now, back to your _nonexistent _attempt at distracting me-"

"Oh, _come on!_ You have to agree that I-"

"Save it, Potter."

"Admit it, Evans."

Back in the Great Hall, Sirius turned to his friends, grinning like an idiot.

"Told you my plan would work."

"Which one?" was Remus's dry inquiry.

"Well," he scratched his chin, appearing to be deep in thought. Obviously, the outcome was dreadfully hilarious. "All of them are, really, how many to pinpoint?" He sighed, like a man who had completed his duty and more than those which had been required of him.

"I'm talking about the _potion_ plan, you dolts! That brilliant piece of work? That's what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, great going genius," Isa said, rolling her eyes. "You practically had Lily in her I'm-The-Readhead-Who's-Out-For-Blood mood. How very, very brilliant of you."

"You never look at the Perks, Donaldson, that's what your problem is."

"Seriously, Padfoot. Spiking their juice with that Somainsde Maxima Timore potion was a bit too much."

"So _that's_ what it's called."

"And I had to do all the dirty work," Peter grumbled.

"Oh, quit being such killjoys, you lot. It was for their own benefit. You'll see that, one day."

All he got in response were dry mutters of "Sure, Padfoot." and "Whatever you say, Black."

"Well, if you people are so unappreciative of my ways, then I hardly think I will confide my plans for those two for this evening."

"Padfoot, seriously..." Remus gave him an exasperated and - though he will never admit this - half cautious and half scared look.

But Sirius was already grinning.

* * *

><p>"Oho, Lily my dear!"<p>

Said person smiled, a halfhearted attempt that came off more as a grimace.

"Morning, Professor."

"And Potter, my boy! How's Quidditch coming along, eh?"

"Just fine, sir. Haven't had much practice in this week, but we have a practice scheduled later, this evening."

"And when would be the next one?"

James rubbed his head with his free hand dubiously. "Uh - Dunno, Professor. Two days after the Ball, most probably."

"Not the day after, then?"

Again, he looked at the Professor warily. "I... don't think so, no, sir. No one will get their carcass down the day after it anyway, and since the Ball is day after, I can't very well expect anyone to show up tomorrow anyway."

"Well, my dear boy, you won't be getting out of this one, then. I'm hosting a little get together for a select few students the day after the ball, all very casual. Would you be game?"

James tried not to grimace. "Well, Professor, don't have much of a choice, do I?" he said, raising his hand attached to Lily with a short chuckle, attempting to joke.

Slughorn laughed merrily. "Why, yes of course! How could I have forgotten? Hmm... I have to say, though... Curious bit of handiwork, whoever did it." His eyes twinkled with mirth.

"You'll have to thank Remus for that one," Lily muttered, cross.

"What was that, m'dear?"

"Nothing, Professor! Just wondering what we were going to be doing today?" she asked casually.

"Oh, well, it's a lecture day today, I'm afraid."

"Very well, sir."

Slughorn chuckled some more, before walking away, patting his stomach happily.

The class slowly began to file in, as Lily and James sat down on the third desk from the front.

"Alright, alright. Settle down, students. And Mr. Finnigin and Miss Vance, I'd very much appreciate it if you sat down on the seat and stop it with that display."

The class laughed, turning to look at the accused who had, rightly, turned bright red and were sitting down, muttering hasty apologies.

"Now, as you all know, today will not be a practical class. The potion that we shall eb discussing today, is a queer little thing called the Alihotsy Draught. If anyone could tell me it's effects and the antidote... Miss Evans?"

Lily's head snapped up from where she had been brooding in silence.

"Oh, uh-" Her eyes darted towards the board where Slughorn had, thankfully written the name of the potion. "Alihotsty Draught...? It is prepared from the leaves of the Alihotsy or the Hyena tree. The leaves, when concocted in the right proportion, can induce uncontrollable laughter and hysteria."

"Correct, right you are, Lily! Ten points to Gryffindor!" The Gryffindors all grinned at this. "And what can you say about the antidote?"

"Um..." Lily racked her brain. She remembered reading it just two days ago... The antidote was... "The Glumbumble, isn't it? It's an insect that... induces melancholy. It's also used an an antidote caused by the Alihotsy leaves."

"Excellent! Wonderful, Lily m'dear. Absolutely correct! Another ten points to Gryffindor." Half the class definitely cheered this time.

"Great work, Red." James smiled.

Lily raised her eyebrows dubiously. "Does that mean I start calling you Black, now?"

"If you want to."

"Well, I'd saved that just for night, but I guess..."

"Oh hardy har har, Lily. You're so funny." She smirked and looked at James, who was scowling.

"Oh, quit sulking. You'll get over it."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Just for future reference..."

"Hmm?"

"Don't ever joke like that, again."

She paused momentarily. "Alright." It came out softer than she had intended to.

"Good."

"Yeah."

* * *

><p>"<em>NO!"<em>

"Come on, please?"

"No _bloody_ way, Potter!"

James sighed heavily. "Lily, just please listen to me once-"

"No. Damn. Way. James. Potter. You get that clear in that ridiculously small head of yours!"

"I will ignore the jibe." Lily rolled her eyes. "Please, Lily? For me?"

"Uh-no. No, there's no way you're making me go up _there_ on this little piece of unreliable _stick!"_

James grasped his broomstick with his free hand and placed it near his chest.

"I really, really don't believe you just said that."

"Yeah, I really, really _did_ say that and they really, really _are_ my sentiments, so there is no point in trying to convince me otherwise! No, sir!"

James sighed exasperatedly. "Come _on_, Lil! It's just Quidditch!"

"_Just Quidditch?_ Just QUIDDITCH? That is death on a stick! I will, under NO circumstances, leave the sanctuary of this ground! No, no way on earth! I have a _very_ bad and painful history with gravity."

Despite the fact that he was getting late, and the team was shooting him annoyed looks, his lips quirked slightly.

"What kind of history?"

"A long and painful battle. It's been going on for many years, now. I'm yet to come out victorious."

James was laughing openly by now.

"Don't laugh, you moron!"

"What exactly do you mean, when you say... painful?"

"I mean painful," she said gravely.

"Define painful," he said, barely containing his laughter.

"Painfully _embarrassing._ Very, very much so."

He started laughing again. "Well, don't you think it's about time we changed that?"

"Uh... no. No way. You are _not_ making me go up there, James!"

"You don't even have to do anything, Lil! Trust me, it's not bad. We won't be playing either... I'll just give the team directions... and occasionally holler at them, promise."

Her lips tilted upwards by a millimeter. James tool this as an encouragement and went on.

"Besides, all you have to do it grab me and hold on for dear life."

She rolled her eyes. "Very funny."

He sighed happily. "Isn't it? Now quit wasting time and just get on the broom!"

Lily gave a little nervous laugh and watched with wide eyes and James mounted the broom. Since her right hand was attached to his left, she had to sit sideways in front of him. With trembling legs, she mounted the broom in the aforementioned position. James grabbed the broomstick's handle with his free hand, leaning forward, effectively covering Lily as well.

Just as James kicked off from the ground, Lily clamped her eyes shut and buried her face in the crook of his neck, wrapping her free arm around his med-section. It did not hamper his maneuvers on the broom as he rose above steadily, save for his quick intake of breath.

James leaned forward suddenly, removing his free hand from gripping the handle to cradle her head and push it more snugly in neck (scaring her half to death; I mean, HELLO? Leaving the handle while several feet above the ground was NOT her idea of fun, no thank you!) and before Lily could grasp what was going on, she heard a light whistle go off.

Oh.

He was assembling the team.

And protecting her ears from the sudden screech.

Well, aw.

He was still a git, though. Mostly. A surprisingly less one, but a forcing-Lily-Evans-on-a-broom-without-her-consent git anyway.

But, still.

"Alright, now. Enough dallying. McKinnon and Fenwick, start with the usual Quaffle drills." Lily could practically hear the grin in his voice. Said people whistled appreciatively, obviously it wasn't the most gruesome of tasks their Captain gave them, she thought dryly.

James moved his hand from her head and grasped the handle again. Lily almost sobbed in relief.

"Thank you."

"Of course, Red. Couldn't have your hearing impaired now, could we?"

"No. Thanks for holding the damn stick currently, unwilling, carrying my person again."

James rolled his eyes. "Try not to show too much gratitude, huh?"

"Already on it, captain."

He grinned. They floated almost aimlessly, James stopping here and there to talk to his team mates.

Eventually, Lily felt comfortable enough to loosen her death like grip around his waist and actually enjoy the ride a bit. Just as her arm lost its vice-like grip, he jerked the broom to their right, sending Lily slamming back into him, her arm nearly squeezing the life out of him.

"You absolute git!" She all but screeched.

James laughed.

"You did that on purpose!"

"What?" he shouted. "Can't hear you! You want to go to a circus?"

"I really hate you right now."

"What? You really want a cow?"

She pulled a face. "That didn't even make sense, Potter."

"When have I ever made sense, love?"

Lily huffed, ready to give him a piece of her mind, but James had started giving orders to his team members again.

After about an hour, the team descended down at James' word. James looked at her and gave her a maniacal grin.

"Prepare yourself, for the best ride of your life."

"What? Potter don't you dare try anything funn- AAAH!"

James shot towards the ground, making absolutely sure that Lily was neatly tucked under the arm that was grasping the broom. He jerked his broom upwards just as they were about to crash, their feet coming to he ground easily.

Lily opened her eyes wide. "You are _so DEAD_, Potter!"

James only laughed. "You enjoyed that, Lily."

Lily snarled through her teeth. "Oh, yeah," she said bitingly. "Let me show you my deep felt gratitude."

"Uh, Lily? Really," he gave a nervous chuckle. "No need for that. You're happy, right? That's all that matters."

"Don't you even begin to-"

But James started running towards the castle that precise second, effectively cutting off whatever she had been about to say and dragging her behind him in the process.

"Do _not_ think you're getting out of this, Potter," Lily panted as they skidded to a halt in the corridor somewhere.

"How about we make a deal?" he asked hopefully.

"How about not?"

He laughed nervously again. "No, really. It'll be worth it."

"It better be something great, Potter," she growled.

"Well, what if I told you that I knew what your dream meant?"

Lily raised an eyebrow, half-interested and half-resigned. She opened her mouth but James had started speaking again.

"But only if you stop doing that thing."

A confused expression graced Lily's face now. "Uh...what exactly am I doing?"

"That thing!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, _that!_ Of course, I got it," she drawled sarcastically._  
><em>

"I meant just that... thatthingyoudowithyoureyebrow."

"Sorry, what?"

James sighed, though his neck turned a delicate shade of red. "I meant, stop doing that thing you do with your eyebrow."

She raised an eyebrow again. "I beg your pardon?"

"This! This thing! Stop doing it!"

Lily smirked, raising her eyebrow up again and again, the end result of which she was quite sure would have left her looking like a headless chicken. As usual, James felt his mouth curving upwards and a chuckle escaping his lips before he could help it.

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"You're maddeningly competitive, you know that?"

"You're maddeningly infuriating, _you_ know _that_?"

James smirked. "So I've heard." Lily laughed.

"Why does it bother you, James?" she singsonged.

James neck tuned slightly red again. "Just because!"

"That's not an answer!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Not _again,_ Potter!"

"Old habits die hard, love."

Lily rolled her eyes and looked at him again, expecting an explanation. James sighed in resignation.

"Ican'tdoitthat'swhy."

Lily's smirk widened now. "Sorry, didn't catch that. What did you say? You couldn't do that?"

James scowled. "Whatever, okay. I still don't understand how people can have just one eyebrow function independently," he said glumly.

Lily laughed, but otherwise saved him the embarrassment which would have been sure to come his way, had she said something.

"Anyway, what were you saying before?"

"Honestly, Lily, can you stop mocking me now?" he asked, scowling halfheartedly.

"As much as doing that would amuse me, Potter-" James sent her a mock glare -"I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about your expertise on my dreaming patterns and brilliance in decoding their meanings." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yes, of course! Well, it was quite simple, from what you told me, don't you think?"

"Oh?"

"Yes. Remember how I told you yesterday about- about mine? I told you that I'd dreamt exactly the two things that I feared most. Your dream is also the same. You dreamt what you fear most, which in your case, is being mean to someone."

Despite the overwhelming feeling in the pit of her stomach, Lily allowed herself a small laugh. "Please," she scoffed. "I can be mean to people."

It was James' turn to roll his eyes. "I'm quite aware of that, Lils. I was on the constant hearing end of your- um- verbal spats for four years, wasn't I?"

Lily prepared herself to roll her eyes, but something stopped her. After all, no matter what he had done, hadn't she always had a nagging sensation of guilt after their banters?

She frowned. "Well, it isn't exactly a crime to want to be nice to people."

James smiled. "Why do you think everyone likes you, Lily?"

She grinned. "Because I'm so good looking, obviously."

James, laughing, said, "I'm rubbing off on you for sure, Lils. This is definite proof. So much conceit in a single statement. I'm impressed."

"Why, thank you."

He grinned. "But what I saw- it was two things. Are you sure the only thing you saw was being rude to a helpless little girl?" he asked teasingly.

Lily laughed, but the motion stopped abruptly when she registered the first half of his sentence. The second part of her dream had been where she was courting '_Lord Potter'._ She scoffed internally, but her mind was working at an impossibly high speed, deducing the possibilities in record time.

Was James actually right? She had accepted the fact about her being afraid of being unnecessarily rude to people; which, somewhere in her conscience, she knew was her biggest fear of letting people down. But then, surely, it could only mean that the other thing she was afraid of, was - she gulped- falling in love? More importantly, falling in love with... James?

The idea was so ludicrous that she wanted to laugh. To be afraid of falling in love with a person, there should _be_ a possibility of even falling in love with said person in the first place. Surely, the idea seemed impossible.

Granted, James had changed a lot. He no longer pulled off stupid stunts on people just for the fun of it, carried out his Head Boy responsibilities quite well, minimized the usual everyday pranks and above all, stopped asking her out. The fact made her feel far more... incomplete, somehow, than she cared to admit. But, she realized, this James wasn't a new transformation. She'd seen him helping out younger students even before, tutor third years in Transfiguration last year in a secluded corner in the library(probably to avoid being seen), not to forget, he had always been there to sock anyone in the face when they said something about her ancestry. Not that she cared about it in the least, but she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel grateful.

He'd always been the way he was now, she realized with a jolt, just the hard exterior he had created when he was trying to impress her had stopped her from looking past his arrogant front. She was glad that she had come to know this side of James', because she actually liked spending time with him.

Whoa, like? And James Potter? In the same sentence? What was wrong with her? _But_, she rationalized, _he isn't how he used to be. There is nothing wrong with liking James._ But was it really that easy? Was she actually afraid that she may be starting to like this James Potter a rather too much for her comfort? Was she really afraid of falling in love with him?

_No_, she thought stubbornly, _this is madness._ Lily Evans wasn't afraid of petty things like love, for Merlin's sake! Of course, not. Just because a part of her stupid dream had _probably_ meant something, didn't mean that the whole of the meaningless thing had to be true. But then, why did she have to repeat it over and over in her head to convince herself?

And then she just sighed and pushed these thoughts out of her mind, because they were all together too confusing and- there it was again, though she wouldn't admit it to herself, not even in her head- frightening.

When she turned back towards James, it was to see him looking at her with an indefinable expression, one side of his mouth curved upwards slightly.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Okay, Potter, I'm done with my reflection. There's nothing more to it."

James chuckled, though that look, which she couldn't quite place, still remained in his eyes.

"Well, if you say so, honey."

"Do you like your tongue, James?" she asked unexpectedly.

He was rather thrown off by the question, but replied anyway, "Why yes, Lily, I do."

"Very good, then. Call me that once again, and I'll make sure you're never able to use it again."

"But Liiily," he whined, "you can't do that! How are we supposed to-"

She clamped her free hand on his face, face slightly red. She was about to open her mouth and give him a good earful, but he pried her hand away and beat her to it.

"I was about to say how are we supposed to _talk_, Evans. What were you thinking?" he wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Wow," she started bluntly, "you just won the student of the year award for The International Gutter Institution."

James started laughing. "You can expect a treat then, Evans."

She rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."

"Honestly, you'd think I'd have gotten that into my head by now," he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "And let's not dwell on my dreams. Seriously, if I can see penguins tap dancing, which I'm sure as hell even you can't make something out of-" he laughed- "we can be pretty sure that it didn't mean anything."

"Believe what you want to, Lils. But I know that that was exactly what your dream signified. No matter how much you try to defend your unmatched benignant nature."

"And why do you think Morpheus is suddenly showering us with self-realization insinuating dreams?"

James just looked at her in confusion. "Sorry, who?"

"Greek God of dreams, Potter," she said dryly.

"God? Isn't that the term muggles use?"

She rolled her eyes. "Didn't you take muggle studies, Potter?"

"That was -" He stopped, getting slightly red. "That was just so I could learn some things... to, you know... impress you." She opened her mouth, an amused half-smile on her face, but he continued hurriedly. "That was, of course, when I was younger and stupid and -"

"I'm not going to castrate you, you know."

"I can never be sure with you, Lily. Remember fourth year? After the Halloween feast? When you threw that shoe on my head and said that you would rather be fed to a starving kookaburra than even thing about going out with me?"

She smirked. "Well, that was a long time ago, many many years ago, in fact."

"I have a good memory," he said pointedly.

She laughed. "Alright, alright... you've made your point." He grinned and she stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, for the love of Merlin, can we stop discussing my violent tendencies now?"

"If you say so, love." She rolled her eyes. "What was that thing about Gads, again?"

"G_ods_, Potter. And yes, I was asking you -"

"I remember what you were asking me. And to answer that... well, everyone usually tends to take special interest in us, don't they?"

Lily chuckled slightly before closing her eyes and exhaling slowly.

"Okay, James. As you say." The corner of her mouth tilted upwards by a millimeter.

"Knew you'd see the light one day."

"I have to say, though. Your knowledge is remarkable."

"Was that sarcasm I just heard, Lilybear?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not going to answer. I'm sure you would have picked on on it after all these years now."

"Ah, but Lily, I merely speak with the wisdom of a boy who understands the girl."

She didn't reply, just allowed the corners of her mouth to drift up a bit further.

"Can we head for dinner, now? I'm awfully famished."

"Of course. I wouldn't _dream_ of having a _growing b_-"

James shut her mouth with his free hand, sulking petulantly. Then, before she could even do full justice to her laughter, James had already stalked off towards the Great Hall, dragging a hysterical Head Girl behind him.

"Really, I ought to go look for a Glumbumble insect somewhere," he grumbled. "You're quite the hysterical loon right now."

Her only response was to laugh more loudly.

"But hey, look at the positive side," she said, trying very hard to control her mouth from tilting upwards. "You learnt the potions stuff we did today! And didn't even make a fuss about it."

"Oh, golly gee! Lucky me."

"Indeed you are, Mr. Potter."

* * *

><p>"Honestly, Sirius, how many times have I told you to stop meddling with things that don't concern you?"<p>

Sirius looked up innocently from the pitcher he was currently examining.

"I dunno, Moony, how many times _have_ you?"

Remus sighed exasperatedly. _  
><em>

"_Really_ Padf-"

"Oh, look! Lily and Prongs are here!" Peter cut in quite loudly, and frankly, quite unnecessarily.

Lily gave Peter a strange look as she slid next to Remus, James in tow, though still partially sulky.

She turned to Remus and Sirius. "Is he... on something?"

"Really wish that could have justified it," Remus muttered tiredly.

As the two loaded their plates (Lily doing it for James as well), Mary turned towards Lily.

"I've hardly seen you around, Lils," she said crossly. "I mean, when was the last time we actually sat and talked?"

"That would be before you decided to stick me to this ape, here."

"Hey!"

"Shut it, big boy."

"Aw, look at you two-"

"Shut it, Sirius!" This one came from about five different sources.

Sirius, predictably, paid no heed to any of them.

"So, how was you practice?"

Lily groaned. James huffed indignantly.

"It was brilliant. I don't know why you're complaining, Lily. It was loads of fun."

"Plummeting to my death is not my idea of fun, James," she replied dryly.

"Come now, it wasn't as bad as that."

"Don't you even get me started, Potter," she snarled.

"There's the fifteen year old Lily we know," Sirius singsonged.

"_Knew_, Black. Knew. You really don't want to get to know her all that well right now, I can assure you that."

Sirius might have whimpered a bit at the look he was receiving, though he would never admit to it of course.

"I'll take your word for it."

James was still in a bit of a sour mood. "I'm hungry. And thirsty."

"And significantly ego-deprived," Lily drawled sarcastically.

Sirius had perked up, though. "Thirsty, you say?" Remus groaned almost inaudibly, but the action went unnoticed. "As it so happens, I just managed to sneak in some exploding lemonade from The Three-"

"You were in Hogsmeade?" Lily asked sharply.

"Where else is the Three Broomsticks located?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, Black, what I mean is _when did you bloody go to Hogsmeade today?_ You guys were with us all day!"

"Not during practice, we weren't."

"So you all went?"

"I didn't," Remus put it sourly.

"He's got his knickers in a twist, leave the poor sod alone."

"Really, Sirius-"

"Uh-huh. Later, Moony old pal. Save your grumbling for anytime after dinner. You're ruining my appetite."

Remus pulled a face. He was about to open his mouth, but Sirius had already poured two big goblets and handed them over to Lily and James.

James drowned his without giving it any thought. Lily looked at Sirius suspiciously.

"Why are you guys not having any?"

"We already did, Evans. You actually though we would wait around for you two?"

Lily shrugged, accepting the Sirius-like answer with ease. She took a few bites of her rice before sipping the drink. Sirius tried not to grin like the madman that he was, while the others chatted amongst themselves and Lily and James continued to drink.

After a while, when almost everybody had finished eating, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The hall went silent nearly at once.

"Good evening. I hope you had a satisfactory meal. I, for one, certainly did. Our friends, the elves have certainly outdone themselves today."

There were derisive snorts from the general vicinity of the Slytherin table, but no one paid them any attention.

"Now, it has come to my notice that there have been many cases of - what do they say? - ah, skiving classes, particularly among the sixth years. While, I assure you, I am well aware that this is quite a regular occurrence here at Hogwarts-" Dumbledore glanced briefly over to where the Marauders and the girls were sitting, provoking scattered laughter throughout the Hall -"but taking into account the astounding number of such cases recently, the teachers have asked me to kindly inform the sixth years that exams, covering however much has been covered in your class till now, are to be taken after two weeks from now."

There were loud groans from all corners of the Great Hall, and loud shouts of general protest. But Dumbledore raised his hand and the Hall fell silent at once.

"The good news is, that the marks will not be taken into any serious account, they will be instrumental in deciding whether the students are capable enough to carry on studying the NEWT classes that they have picked."

Further groans from the students. "Now, since classes have only just begun, the course to cover is not much. Such a thing has never happened here at Hogwarts before, but the disappearances of more and more students from the classes have left no other option with the teachers. I have to say, I'm very disappointed."

The students had the decency to not speak at least now.

"Lastly, as you all are well aware, the Christmas Ball will take place day after tomorrow. The prefects and our two Head students have been working very hard to put it all together. So if we could have a round of applause for them-"

But there really was no need for him to finish because the students had already started clapping. Some prefects got up and took a bows... or, you know, a few. James was about to get up as well, but Lily tugged on his hand forcefully.

"No chance, big boy."

"But-"

"No."

"You're such a killjoy."

"Sulk all you want."

"I will."

"Good."

"Good!"

"Why do you have to have the last word in everything?"

"Just because."

"That's not an answer, Potter."

"That's all you're going to get out of me, Lil."

She fumed.

**She looks cute when she's angry with me,** James thought.

"_So_ not the time, Potter."

"Huh?" he asked, confused.

_Huh! He thinks he can sit there and make that stupid kinda-maybe-slightly adorable confused face and I'll forgive him. As if,_ Lily thought moodily.

"You think I'm adorable, Evans? Really?"

Lily scoffed. "Please, Potter. Living in delusions is not very healthy."

"It wouldn't be delusion if you just said it out loud, you know."

"I said no such thing!"

"You so did, Lily. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really."

_Really, my arse. Stupid git thinks he can outsmart me. _

**Back to insulting, are we?**

_Obviously. Wait... Why are the others looking like that didn't just hear what he said?_

**Me? What is she on about? And why on earth is she talking to herself?**** ... You're not talking to yourself, are you?**

_Holy Merlin. No, please, no..._

As they faced each other, both with evident horror written on their face, they seemed to notice for the first time that the rest of them didn't look as surprised with their weird abrupt conversation. Sirius was clapping his hands together excitedly.

"Did I just... hear what you said-" Lily started horrifically.

"In your mind?" James finished, an equally dumbfounded expression on his face.

**Bloody-**

_Hell._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hello, all you lovely people! Sooo sorry for the long update. New term started and there was just so much to do; many things caught up and there was hardly any time left to write. :'(**

**I put this pathetic excuse of a chapter in barely two days and I felt so guilty about updating so late that I didn't have any time to proof read it. Anyway, this is what you get for now, in all my haste. **

**I WILL re-read the whole thing and edit it as much as I can. There are probably a few more things I would like to add... So I WILL do all that. I just wanted to update as soon as I could. I'm personally not too happy with it, but I'm going to start working on the next chapter and try to update it much sooner this time. The next one's definitely going to be much better, considering I have a lot planned for the time Lily and James can hear each others' thoughts. xD**

**You know, looking back at the previous chapters, I nearly always cringe. It had been the first time I'd ventured into writing something like this and I was quite an idiot back then. I'd like to think I've improved since, but there really is nothing I can say about the first few chapters. :/ :3**

**Thank you for all the lovely reviews for the last chapter. They were such an encouragement. I didn't get any time to reply to any of those... But I will. Did I mention I loved you guys? :')**

**As for this chapter, well... There you have it. Please leave a review. If you liked it or didn't... I would love it if you could just let me know. It's a big letdown when you see that people put your story on alert and favorite it, yet can't tell you what they really thought of it.**

**So, please please please REVIEW! ^_^  
>I will edit this chapter as soon as I can and your reviews always make me so happy. :') So please do so!<br>(I dunno how much longer I can keep on bribing you with Butterbeer. Maybe chocolate pumpkins? :3 )**

**Cheers,  
>RainHolly<strong>


	10. I Can Hear You, You Know

**Chapter Ten**

** I Can Hear You, You Know **

* * *

><p><em>Mmhm, warm<em>, Lily thought, as she snuggled more closely into her pillow.

Into her very warm, very comfortable, very... very much alive pillow.

_Is it breathing? _

**Of course I'm breathing, you adorable dolt.**

And when Lily heard this, of course, she reacted like the mature, seventeen year old witch that she is.

"_AAAAAH!"_

"_Ow. _Bloody hell Evans, no need to impair my hear—"

"What was that, Potter? I heard you. You didn't say anything. How could I hear you? _I heard you_."

"It's useless trying to put sense into you this early in the morning, isn't it?" James muttered dryly.

But Lily wasn't listening. Yesterday's events came rushing back to her like a whirlwind of paranoia and incredulity bundled up together.

Great Hall. Dinner. Exploding lemonade. Reading James' thoughts, literally.

Well.

That was just...

_"Bloody hell!_"

**Just try and relax, Evans. It's not that big of a deal**—

_Not that big of a deal? Have you gone mental, Potter? And—_

"Wait, why are we doing this?"

**Because it's much more fun this way, silly.**

_Potter, seriou—argh!_

"Stop that!"

"Alright, alright. Ruin the fun," James sulked.

"_Fun?_" Her eyes bugged out incredulously. "James, do you _realize_ that we can hear everything that we are thinking?"

James grinned like a toddler.

"Yes I do, love."

_Um, Potter? _"Everything! Did you think that, perhaps, there may be a _few_ things that we might not want the other to hear?"

"Oh, buggering hell."

**I really have to stop thinking about—**

_About what?_

**Holy shit!**

"James, let's just... Just head off to class, okay? Who knows, maybe we'll be so distracted by our studies that we won't get much time to think and... And stuff, you know?" she said, looking at him hopefully.

James gave her a look as if to say—

**Seriously?**

_Oh, right. Forgot who I was talking to. Like you could ever be distracted by studies. _

"I can hear you, you know?" he said, scowling slightly.

She sighed.

_This is going to be a long day._

She changed their night clothes into their school uniforms, remembering last night, when they had reached their Common Room. Lily had been so mortified upon realizing that her once sworn enemy could not access every single thought in her mind that she had been too terrified to sleep.

She didn't even remember when she finally _did_ go to sleep.

**Oh, it was nearly midnight, I think. You kept me awake all that time because of the constant buzzing of 'I won't think of anything' I could hear.**

She scowled. "I didn't ask you."

He rolled his eyes.

She led the way out of the Portrait Hole after summoning their bags, with James in tow behind her.

**Why does she have to swing her bottom like that? Doesn't she realize—**

"Hold that thought right there, Potter," she said, completely red.

When James realized she had just heard his silent musing, his eyes widened so comically that Lily might have laughed, if she wasn't already feeling so mortified.

"Right. Yeah. You were right. This won't work. We need to find an antidote thingy for this," he all but rushed.

She narrowed her eyes.

"I'd like an answer first, you know. What don't I realize?"

James flushed uncomfortably.

"Hungry! My, I'm hungry. Famished, even. Aren't you hungry? Yeah? We're all hungry. Let's just go have breakfast, yeah?"

"Potter," she started threateningly, but he had already started walking very briskly towards the Great Hall.

"I hope you realize that given our current situation you can't really get rid of me, you know," she muttered wryly.

"Who's trying to get rid of you?" he laughed nervously. He looked over his shoulder. "I'm just—_crap!_"

Before Lily had time to diagnose this change in his behavior, he had promptly started running foward, only stopping when they reached a sort of alcove.

Yeah.

Then he ran head-on towards the wall on their right.

That's right.

Towards a wall.

Straight, without stopping and wondering that he could possibly damage the remaining meager amount of brain cells left in his head kind of running.

Any second now, she was going to be flattened like a piece of parchment.

She closed her eyes and prepared to scream during the oncoming collision but felt... nothing.

They had stopped. He was obviously breathing laboriously, though perhaps in a more dignified manner than her.

She hadn't felt the impact that would crush her to pulp.

She opened her eyes slowly.

They were in a cave-like place, with no lighting, which was obviously too small. It was like a small depression in an otherwise normal wall, as it hid them from passerby's view. It was meant for perhaps only a single person, considering she was pressed flush against his body, and her back pressed a little painfully into the wall.

_His admittedly well toned, muscular bo— Shut up, Evans!_

**Nah, Lily, don't. I'm rather enjoying this little heart to heart we're having here.**

Positive that she resembled a mashed tomato by now, she lifted her head in horror, only to see him smirking down at her.

"I... I—I wasn't ta—talking—_thinking_ about y—you," she stuttered lamely.

His smirk only broadened.

"Oh, shut up."

He pressed her even more into the wall, his face coming dangerously close to her own.

"James," she whispered, her voice sounding husky. "Wha— What are you—"

"Shh." He was too close, now. Much too close. She could see his eyes properly, all those tiny flecks of green, brown and so many more shades dancing around in his hazel orbs. "I think I can hear Filch."

And he was right. She could hear his distinct mutterings somewhere not far away from where they stood.

"It's—it's only time for breakfast right now. It's not like we're—" He leaned in more towards her and she forgot what she was saying altogether. She closed her eyes, trying to focus. "We aren't breaking any rule, right—"

He leaned in so close now that she was sure that if she opened her mouth, it would brush against his.

"Technically we are," he said, sounding slightly out of breath. "We woke up late so I steered us through a secret passage after running a while, y—you know? I didn't even realize it at first, but Filch always checks around the secret passages at this hour so I had to hide—"

"Shh!" It was Lily to hushed him this time. "I think he's—he's closer now."

Sure enough, they could hear muffled footsteps that were undeniable heading were they were standing.

"Shit," Lily whisper-swore as best as she could. "I'm going to get another detention. This is bad. Very bad. What kind of a Head Girl am I? I can't belie—"

Nothing could have possibly shut her up right now except for the feel of a pair of warm, soft lips on hers.

_His_ lips.

Oh, Merlin.

"He might hear you, you know," he muttered as his lips moved feverishly against hers. "You need to stop talking."

And then, Merlin damn her, before she could process what was happening and what she was doing, she had done the unthinkable.

Despite her mind screaming at her otherwise, her body betrayed her.

She felt her lips starting to move against his warm ones.

She was kissing him back.

_I'm kissing bloody James Potter back._

**Might have established that a little early—**

"Anything here, my sweet?"

James pressed himself even more into Lily, if that was even possible. His free hand, which was at first angling her face to give him the best possible way of exploring her mouth, went around her waist, pushing her more into him and subsequently pushing both of them more snugly against the wall.

"James—" she rasped.

"Hmm?" He caressed her jaw, his thumb drawling slow, torturous circles on her soft cheek.

"I think he has gone."

And it was true. They could no longer hear the squib muttering sweet nothings to his beloved cat.

"But we don't know that for sure," he murmured, not releasing his hold on her, the hand joined to hers' tightening it's hold.

"We should make sure," she breathed, standing on her tiptoes to meet his lips again.

All sense of rationality having left her, she pressed herself more closely against him as she moved her lips rhythmically against his. His hand was running up and down her sides, as she sifted her own through his soft hair.

_What am I _doing_ I can't be kissing him right now I don't even like him for Merlin's sake what's wrong with me—_

**I can't believe I'm kissing Lily Evans right now and oh _Merlin_ it's so much better than in my dreams and—**

They missed each others' thoughts this time, though, as it occurred to them at the same time just what they were doing.

Their frenzied movements slowed gradually, until they were merely standing, his forehead on hers'.

"Think we got him off the scent, right?"

"Yeah," she hated her voice for coming out so throaty. "That's why we were doing this. To escape him."

"Yeah," he breathed, eyes closed.

"So it would be okay to go out now."

"Hmm."

"But he might come again."

"That can definitely happen."

"So," she sucked in a deep breath, chest heaving and falling with every word she said, "we should make absolutely sure—"

"Evans?" he groaned.

"Y—Yeah?"

"_Shut up._"

And with that be bent his head low to capture her lips again, moving them over hers' slowly, as though they had all the time in the world.

Needless to say, they didn't make it to breakfast that morning.

* * *

><p>"Where are—"<p>

"Sorry we're late, Professor. There was a First Year stuck in the trick step on the fourth floor, so we had to get him out and drop him off to Potions first," Lily said smoothly.

"That's alright, Miss Evans. If you and Mr. Potter could take a seat, we can begin," Professor Flitwick said, his eyes twinkling merrily.

James rolled his eyes as they made their way towards the front of the class.

Funny, _he_ didn't seem to be the least bit fazed by this morning's events.

Lily had tried not to dwell too much on it, because that would involve thinking, and she was an over-thinker, and since her thoughts weren't exactly private now she didn't trust herself not to stray to territories that would most definitely lead to her embarrassing demise.

The two of them had come out of their hiding place only when they had heard the bell for their first class go off. Rushing out nonsense about how they were only trying to stay out of trouble and hadn't meant anything, the two had rushed for Charms, mutually deciding not to talk about what they had been doing the better half of the morning.

_What the hell am I supposed to do?_

**Act normal until the end of classes—**

"Gah!"

She'd forgotten he could still hear everything that went through that sorry little head of hers.

"Are you alright, Miss Evans?" Professor Flitwick asked her, concerned.

The whole class was staring at her.

Apparently she's even forgotten that while speaking out loud, the _entire_ human population could hear her.

"I—Um, well I—that is, yes. Yes, Professor, I'm fine."

_Eloquent, Evans. Really._

**You only used that against me last year, remember? **

_Great, so now you're going to distract me the entire class, aren't' you?_

**Are you kidding? We can talk as much as we bloody want and no one will even get to know. Do you think I'm going to let that pass?**

_James, please, this whole talking-in-our-heads thing is a little weird. I can't keep a straight face knowing that I'm... talking to you in my head and you're replying... in my head._

**I think it's brilliant. I mean, its way better than passing notes. And, bloody hell, if I pull a straight face and you know, keep talking side by side, Flitwick might actually think I'm paying attention!**

_Yeah, that would be new, wouldn't it?_

She wasn't sure how they could talk—think—think talk so casually after what had happened this morning, but she was glad that there wasn't any awkwardness between them. Hell, if they kept up like this, maybe she'd even forget they actually _did _that.

**Stop mocking me.**

_And really, you didn't seem to find it so brilliant when you were checking out my behind, did you?_

James reddened again.

**Trust me, Evans, that's not the only thing I—**

"Professor!" Lily's free hand went flying up in the air. "Could you please explain that again?"

Flitwick beamed, happy that someone was paying attention. James was smirking in his seat.

"Of course, Miss Evans. Now, a cheering charm can only induce happiness for a short period of time—"

She zoned out of that completely, having already known what they were studying. She just needed an excuse to get him to—

**Shut up? You know that's not going to happen, Evans.**

_Dammit!_

**Language, Flower. **He even clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

Huh!

The audacity.

She silently fumed in her seat.

**She looks so cute when she's angry, all red and blotchy.**

_Thanks, Potter. Just what every girl wants to hear._

James blanched. How could he forget that she could hear every damn thing he was thinking after only two minutes of having a conversation with her in his mind?

He sighed.

This was going to take longer to adjust to than he had anticipated.

"So!" Professor Flitwick clapped his hands together happily. "Time for practical assessment! Pair up, all of you."

Lily turned towards James.

"Guess you'll only be on the suffering side, eh?"

"Stop gloating."

She coughed, and it sounded suspiciously like 'wand-less cripple'.

He rolled his eyes. "Real mature, Lily."

She raised her wand and pointed it at him.

"Beatus!"

His eyes clouded and his expression turned dazed and contended in an instant.

"Aha! Miss Evans has done it. Well done! Ten points to Gryffindor!"

Lily smiled, partly out of what Flitwick had just said, but mostly by looking at the happy look on James' face.

_He looks kind of cute like this, all disoriented. _

"Aversa pars," she said. His expression turned back to normal.

"Look cute, do I?" he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Only under the influence of spells, Potter. Nothing to be proud of."

"Oi, Lily!" Sirius was ambling towards them, dragging an irate Remus behind him. "Put one on him also, will you? Grouchy sod's ruining my mood as well."

"What's the matter, Remus?" Lily asked gently.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Nothing. So, what's going on with you guys?"

"Just sharing our thoughts, nothing else."

Remus visibly winced.

"Look, Lily, I would _never_ do something like that and you know it. I don't even know what he was _thinking—"_

"Oh, that's rich. So now you're ratting me out?"

"We knew it was you, Sirius." Uh-oh. James never called him Sirius. "Anyone could have guessed whose brain was behind this deranged scheme."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Lily and James should have heard the other one professing their undying love for each other by now. But of course, this was James. Lily had probably heard some not so decent things till now.

The thought made him snicker.

Three pair of cold eyes turned towards him.

"Oh, stop it all of you. It was just a bit of fun."

"He was thinking about my behind!" Lily yelled outrageously.

"Well, you were thinking about my well-toned body!" James didn't sound as inflamed as he did smug.

_Cocky prat._

Sirius and Remus both gaped.

At Lily.

That's right.

Not at their idiot of a best mate, no.

They stared at Lily.

"You know, James' was kind of obvious, I mean, I'm surprised it was only that, but—"

"Lily?" Remus probed.

"I was not thinking about him, I'll let you three dunderheads know. And class isn't over yet, you know. You two should head back," she said stonily.

She sat the two of them down again, refusing to meet his eye.

Across the room, Sirius and Remus sat down in wonder.

"You know, Padfoot" Remus began, "I was really doubting this stupid plan but... It seems like you did something right, for once."

Sirius only smirked.

Classes after that had been mostly uneventful, and Lily hoped it would remain that way until lunch.

Foolish of her, really.

She should have known that the Fates were against her.

After Charms, the Gryffindors had double period Transfiguration with Hufflepuff. Lily managed to turn her chair into a duck on her fourth attempt, with James' assistance.

Their last class before lunch was Defense Against The Dark Arts with Slytherin. It had been a practical lesson so Lily had to endure her partner, not so surprisingly, Evan Rosier.

It seemed like the world was conspiring against her.

"Long time no see, Evans?"

Lily decided she would deal with him later. First she had to make sure that James wouldn't kill him.

_Don't get us in detention this time, Potter. I'll handle it._

Seething, he gave an imperceptible nod.

Lily looked at him and smiled sweetly.

Rosier seemed a bit thrown off by this, and this was exactly what she wanted.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Stunned, Rosier body went completely rigid, landing smack on the floor. Lily lazily stowed her wand back inside her robes, deciding that she wouldn't revive him until after class ended.

After that she and James mostly just sat and did nothing. Only after class had ended, did someone bump into them and the two of them went spiraling down.

Of course, James just had to land conveniently on top of her.

Of course his lips had to be placed on top of hers' when she had no way (or will) to remove them from her person.

Eva smirked as she pushed past the crowd with her friends and the marauders, not looking back at the two.

_Someone get his lips off m— mmh—_

**Vanilla and strawberry, mhmm**, James thought giddily, as he deepened the kiss.

Lily could feel every inch of his body plastered on top of her own.

He was everywhere.

His tongue nudged her lower lip gently, seeking permission. She opened her mouth to him, forgetting who she was kissing as her tongue wrestled with his for dominance.

James groaned as her tongue swept across his bottom lip, before she started nibbling preciously at the aforementioned place.

They didn't make it that day for lunch either.

* * *

><p>Lily's mind was working in overdrive, the thoughts coming and going at such a speed that James couldn't have processed them even if he wanted to.<p>

She'd full on made out with her archenemy-turned-acquaintance-turned-sort of friend _twice in the same day_.

And they weren't even gong out.

She was a slag.

A horrible, dirty slag.

Oh, what would her mother say?

_What the hell am I doing going around _kissing_ him like this but he_ is_ an amazing kisser but that's not the point and I need to stop I need to stop I need to—_

"Stop, Evans! I can't even understand what you're saying at this speed and it's giving me quite a headache."

"You're not supposed to understand, James. That's kind of the whole point."

"You'd think you might talk to someone you snogged better than_—_"

"We have to talk about that as well." She narrowed her eyes. "I don't know what the hell happened with me, James, but_—Oh,_ wait!" Her eyes suddenly lit up with inspiration. "Maybe they put something in our drinks. I mean, maybe it's the side effect of whatever the hell they put that made us read each others' thoughts and everything, right?"

"Yeah," he mumbled quietly. "That_—_that could be it."

They were sitting on the couch in front of the fire in their Common Room. Classes after lunch time had been tolerable and ended before either of them knew it.

"We have rounds in a few minutes," Lily noted, trying to dispel the tension.

"Hmm," he agreed noncommittally.

He seemed lost in thought, which was funny, because she couldn't exactly _hear_ what was going on in his mind.

Hmm.

She frowned, wishing she could muse silently without having to verbalize every thought of hers' that was so easily accessible to James.

"You just need a lot of patience for that, love," he smirked.

"Let's start with the rounds, shall we?" she asked stiffly.

James laughed openly at her, to which she scowled in good nature.

As they started with the rounds, Lily wondered how easily they could just ignore the fact that they had spent nearly half the day snogging each other, when they had only been forced to endure each others' company because their hands had been stuck together.

"Little objection here, love. I never had to _endure_ you."

For a minute she was afraid she had offended him, but he smiled at her easily.

"Except for when you hexed me and yelled at me and threatened to throw me in the Black Lake or feed me to the nifflers, though that would have been a funny attempt—"

"I was _thirteen!_"

"And so creative."

"Honestly, Potter, shut it before I—"

"What? No quirky comments?"

"Potter, shut up!"

"Really, Lil, what's the—AH!"

She glared at him menacingly as he yelped. He glared right back.

"What?" he whispered irritably. "You _pushed me into a wall._"

"I seem to remember you doing the same to me this morning," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Lily, that wall was permeable." She rolled her eyes. "You just pushed me into a solid, concrete wall."

"James, just shut up for a second. I think I heard—"

"—isn't safe to be discussing this in the open."

"You won't find any midgets out here at this time, Avery."

"Rosier?" James mouthed in disgust.

"Yeah," she replied solemnly. "I thought I'd heard his voice. Shit! We had to find out what they were planning today! Merlin, how could I forget? How could I have been so _stupid_—"

James covered her mouth, quickly getting into motion. Tucking away all strands of her red hair in her jumper and raising his hoodie above his own mop (silently thankful Lily had forced him to wear something for the chill earlier in the evening) he bent down and, for the third time in a singly day, captured the redhead's mouth with his own.

Gasping in complete surprise, Lily provided James with the opportunity to shove his tongue down her throat as she moaned breathlessly.

"What—What—?"

"They're coming this way," he managed in between kisses. "Had to make sure they wouldn't recognize us."

_You find no other way of escaping peop—oh, god._

**They won't suspect random people making out—bloody_ hell._ **

Lily didn't know what she was thinking. Well, she did, and her thoughts weren't exactly morally acceptable and she only hoped James was too busy to concentrate on the things going on in her mind.

But she needn't have worried. Trying to read her thoughts seemed to be the last thing on his mind right now, since he was already otherwise occupied.

"—but if the Dark Lord finds out—"

"_Shut up, you blithering idiot. There's someone over here._"

They could hear Avery snort in disgust. "Just some snogging couple. I doubt they;d be interested in what we have to say."

"But being a little more discreet won't kill you. In fact," Rosier paused thoughtfully, "being otherwise might just ensure that."

"Pack your sarcasm in a little bag and throw it out of this window, Rosier," Avery spat. "We need to start working on that project. You don't want to cross the deadline set by the Dark Lord, do you?"

"Could you _keep it down with the names?_ Do you want to get suspended?"

They were walking away, their footsteps getting faint.

"Do you have your cloak, James?" Lily whispered, peeling her mouth, unwillingly, away from his.

James silently withdrew it from his robes and threw it over the two of them. They followed them at a distance, still slightly dazed.

"Better than getting killed," Avery said in disdain. "Now about those ingredients—"

"I dunno why we're bothering, Avery. Even if we do manage to get hold of those ingredients, that potion is a damn hard one to even _hope_ to brew. And we can't fail. Not with such high gambles. We will have to ask Snape—"

"No! We have to prove ourselves. I refuse to accept his help."

"He's the best potion maker in our year, Avery. You should think about this. He could be really helpful."

"No, Rosier. And that's final. We have to try and nick the ingredients tomorrow. Because of the commotion the Ball will cause, now one bother being near the dungeons. It should be easy."

Rosier hummed in agreement and the two made their way towards their Common Room.

When he was sure they had gone out of earshot, James whipped the cloak off them.

They stared at each other, something akin to horror etched on their faces.

"What was that?" She wasn't sure why she was whispering, but the conversation they had just overheard and the... activities they had partaken in just moments ago had left her quite dazed.

"Voldemort," James muttered darkly. "Dad told me he had started circulated the Dark Lord thing to create fear amongst people."

"Well, it's obviously working. But—how—why—_what_? How is it even possible?" she stammered, her green eyes wide. "They're still students for Merlin's sake!"

"And right under Dumbledore's nose, whatever it is they are planning."

He looked more incredulous than alarmed.

"But they—they _can't_ be _involved with him._ How can they be—?"

"I don't know," he said gravely, so unlike his usual self that she would have recoiled had it not been for her hand attached to his.

"And if they _are_, and they were considering getting help from Se—"

She broke off, unable to continue.

James' face hardened immediately.

"Lily," he started carefully, "I know he was your... mate. But—"

"I'm well aware of what he has become, James. You don't need to remind me, it's just... I still think of him as the pale boy I knew from back home, sometimes. And it's painful, because he's not the same anymore and _I'm_ not the same anymore and I just... He used to get beat up, did you know that?" she asked suddenly, breaking off from her train of thoughts.

James looked surprised.

"I—no, I didn't."

"His father," she said as way of explanation. "Almost everyday. I used to feel so bad for him. And when he told me about Hogwarts, I—" She closed her eyes in anguish. "I wanted to help him. He wore this overcoat and what looked like his mother's old blouse and I just... I _felt_ like I could help him, you know? Once we came to Hogwarts, I thought I might be able to—"

She broke off, uttering a wry sort of laugh.

"Guess it was all useless, yeah? Some people just have their paths written down for them. I still feel like I failed—"

"Lily, don't go there," James interrupted her sternly. "You _know_ none of this was your fault. Hell, if anyone is to blame it's _me—_"

And he hated it. Hated saying it. Hated the words coming out of his mouth. Because he knew they were true.

"No, James," she sighed. "It wasn't your fault. You might have goaded him on, but it was just who he was. If he was any different, he wouldn't have gone running to people who wanted to kill muggleborns and muggles. If he really valued my friendship, he would not have done what he did, no matter what the provocation or from whom."

He remained silent at that, and she smiled sadly.

"You can still try, you know," he offered quietly, stomach churning in dislike at the very thought but knowing it was important for Lily.

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"For what you just said. No, thought."

He smirked slightly.

"I keep forgetting you can hear me."

"And I keep forgetting how quickly we can change subjects."

He chuckled.

"Which one do you want to discuss first, then? My reluctant and probably useless advice about certain greasy haired people or the most probably shit serious problem about those two gits?"

Lily's face turned solemn.

"What will we do, James?"

He sighed. "Honestly? I have no bloody idea. We could tell Professor Dumbledore—"

"But I think it would be better to try and catch them red-handed—"

James looked annoyed, opening his mouth furiously but she cut across him.

"No, listen. Telling someone, _anyone_, might alert them. If they found out from _anywhere_ that they've been found out then they'll obviously put a stop to whatever they're planning. Think about it, James. We can put an end to it, but we can find out what they're planning, and wouldn't that be better in the whole run of things?"

James scowled. "Then I will ask someone else to tail them. I've told you already, I don't want you near them."

Lily's eyes hardened. "I'm not some little kid, James."

"I'm well aware of that, Lily, but those two know some seriously dark magic and it's _not safe_."

"And if we can stop it then we will be ensuring the safety of the general school body, so please think of the bigger picture."

"Lily—"

"You're going to be right next to me, James, so why are you even worrying?"

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I'm currently incapacitated and my wand arm's completely useless. How am I supposed to protect you like this?"

"By believing in me." She looked hard at him. "And by having some faith in me. I have dealt with nasty Slytherin's before and I will deal with them now. But we need to find out what they're up to."

James sighed.

"But we will remain under the cloak. And we will have to tell Sirius and the rest, of course. We're waltzing anywhere without backup."

Lily smiled.

"Done."

"Good. Now let's finish the rounds and be done with the stupid meeting after, yeah?"

* * *

><p>"Decorations?"<p>

"All adorned."

"Music?"

"Check."

"Confirmed with our guest of honor?"

"Done."

"Food?"

James grinned.

"Only the finest delicacies that the house elves will ever prepare."

"I'll let you be the judge," Lily muttered dryly. "Okay, so are we all set for tomorrow?"

There were a few cheers around the room. Well, they _had_ worked hard, after all.

**That we have. Merlin, I can't wait for all this to finally be over.**

_Excited about going back home, are you?_

**You bet. Dad's going to be there for Christmas this time. For the entire holiday. **

_He... Isn't he always?_

**No, he was always away on some mission. Hardly ever saw him. But he retired this year, and though he still helps out, he'll be able to stay over with us and celebrate.**

_That is amazing, James._

He smiled at her.

"Uh," a timid fifth year prefect from Ravenclaw raised her hand, and only then did they notice the weird looks they were receiving from the other prefects.

"Why are you two just looking at each other like that?"

Lily and James reddened, though James' eyes were twinkling. Remus smirked inwardly.

"Nothing," Lily said. "Okay, so if we're all set then you lot can head back towards your dorms. Thank you all for your continued support and all that... You're dismissed."

A few laughs passed around as everyone shuffled our of the Heads' Common Room, muttering their goodbyes.

Remus stayed put by his place near the shelves.

"What have you two been doing today?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked quickly.

_Really subtle._

**It never was particularly your best talent.**

_Thank you, Potter._ She rolled her eyes for good measure.

"Um, just that I want to know how you day was?" Remus put on a look of confusion, inwardly congratulating himself on his brilliant performance.

"It was just the same. Same as in, like all other days, you know? Same old, same boring. Nothing exciting or out of the ordinary. Life's pretty boring."

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Is something the matter, Lily?"

_No, just trying to ignore about half of my day when I'd been doing exactly what I shouldn't have been doing._

"No, everything's good," she smiled.

"Okay," he said slowly, noticing the slight frown James was directing, almost unconsciously, in Lily's direction. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. See you at dinner?"

"Yeah sure, Moony."

Remus walked towards the portrait hole, casting one last odd look at the silent pair. As he left, he wondered if Sirius' daft plan was working after all.

"So," James started, "what do you want to do?"

"Nothing, really. I'm tired." This she accentuated by a yawn.

"Long day, yeah?"

She looked at him.

"Yeah."

"Right."

* * *

><p>"What are they doing?" Sirius asked, glancing towards the entrance of the Great Hall as if expecting his two friends to come tumbling in any moment.<p>

"Damn me if I know," Eva muttered crossly. "I haven't seen her all day!"

"Well, I just left them in their Common Room and they seemed... preoccupied."

"You mean," Sirius smirked and started, but he cut him off.

"No, not like that you git," Remus rolled his eyes. "Lily seemed sort of disoriented and Prongs seemed a bit unusual. Something's probably going on with them."

"Guys," Mary started hesitantly, "do you—do you think that perhaps sticking the two of them together wasn't the best idea? I mean, they have had their differences for such a long time, how can we expect them to adjust to... each other, so soon?"

"No," Sirius said plainly.

About five people rolled their eyes.

"You people aren't thinking about the bigger picture. Those two would never have been able to get past their history if we hadn't forced them together. James' too afraid to try and break his fragile friendship with her and Lily's too stubborn to accept the fact that he has changed and that there can be something between the two of them—as it _should _be."

There was silence for a couple of minutes before Isabella spoke.

"Wow, Sirius, I don't believe that just came out of your mouth."

He grinned lazily.

"And of course, she just doesn't realize how horribly adorable their children would be, in al their messy hair and green eyes glory."

"Yeah," Remus quipped, "now I can believe it was he who said that."

Everyone laughed.

"Still," Peter pipped up after a few moments, "what will we do about them? I mean, I haven't seen them during any of the meals and—"

"And we all know Prongs eats like a starving chimera," Sirius finished solemnly. "Which means that they really _are _preoccupied."

"How about we head back towards their place after dinner and check up on them?" Eva asked.

"No, I think we should leave them be," Remus wrinkled his nose, "at least for tonight."

"He's right, of course," Sirius said cheerfully. "Now who wants to hear my plan for tomorrow?"

He hadn't even finished speaking before there were loud groans of protest.

"Not again, Padfoot, _please. _I fail to understand how you haven't realized by now that your _plans_ mostly always end up getting the two of them in trouble."

"Oh, lighten up. It's the last phase of the whole operation, and hopefully the most effective one as well."

"I don't know why I'm not so sure about that."

"Was that sarcasm I heard, Moony?"

"Well done, Padfoot. At least you can tell, now."

"You're smart."

"Wish I could say the same for you."

"Oh, quit it with that alrea—"

"You're going to carry out with the most likely daft plan you've come up with despite what we say, aren't you?" Isa asked, rubbing her temples wearily.

Sirius grinned.

'Of course I am. I can't believe this is the last time I'll get to say this. Now who wants to hear it?"

* * *

><p>"James, I—"<p>

"Lily, I—"

They both laughed, albeit a little awkwardly.

"You go first," Lily offered.

"No no, you can start."

"No, really, it's quite alright."

"Fine, I—" he hesitated, "are we going to talk about what happened today?"

"About Rosier and Avery?" Lily asked.

"Don't play daft, Lily."

She grimaced.

"Well, what's there to talk about? We only did—_that_—because we had to."

"Three times."

"And it was a matter of life or death during those three."

James raised his eyebrows.

"What? It was! Honestly, I think we're dwelling too much on this."

"We have been avoiding this since it first happened," James pointed out.

Lily scowled, irritated that he kept pressing.

"Ignorance is bliss."

"I'd rather embrace awareness."

"Well, go find someone else to _embrace_."

James rolled his eyes. "We can handle this in a mature way."

_I wonder if he even knows how to spell the word._

**I can hear you, you know? Like I said**—

"Ugh! Just _talk_, please. Stop _thinking_."

"You started it."

"I'd forgotten you were like a parasite plant stuck in my head."

"Honestly, Lily—"

"Would you like to go for dinner?" she asked stiffly.

He sighed, knowing they would get nowhere by fighting about that right now.

"Alright. We've missed two meals as it is."

Lily got up, pulling him along with her and started towards the portrait hole.

Hmm, what was it about her and the Fates, again?

Totally against her, they were.

As her shoelace got caught up with the corner of the rug and she slipped towards the ground, she had absolutely no doubt about that.

As they fell, she cursed gravity, karma, luck and any other such thing came to her mind.

And of course James had to land right on top of her. Of course his lips were supposed to be placed smack on top of hers.

It might have been an innocent mistake on her part, but James seemed determined to exploit it as much as he could. Without even a second's surprise, his lips had started moving against her own, nudging them open, his kisses seeming harder than the previous ones.

She moaned as his tongue finally entered her mouth, eyes fluttering shut as she started to match his frenzied sync. She'd long ago (long time back today, that is) stopped questioning why she responded to him the way she did, because she never did find an answer to that.

But, she realized after a few moments, she wasn't really doing anything. Her lips seemed to have a mind of their own, moving against his on their own.

As he ran his tongue across her bottom lip, she shivered, angling her face sideways to get better access. He seemed to like their new position as he grunted in appreciation.

His free hand moved to her face, supping her jaw, her cheeks, running his thumb along her neck. As he moved away from her to let them both get some air, his lips started trailing wet kisses along her jaw line.

Lily was breathing heavily. She knew they had no excuse this time. It had happened.

And she had let it.

There was no going back now.

He started moving towards her lips again. She closed her eyes and decided to push it out of her mind and think about it tomorrow.

As his lips met hers again, she sighed.

And finally, that night they couldn't make it to dinner either.

* * *

><p>They were lying in their sleeping bags, facing each other but not quite looking. Lily's eyes were closed and James was watching their clasped hands intently, as if it held all the answers to his problems.<p>

Lily was once again, like the previous night, chanting _I will not think anything_ in her mind.

James seemed too preoccupied to comment on that, frowning thoughtfully.

After what had seemed like several days, the two had gotten up from the floor, dusted themselves off, conjured their sleeping bags and changed their clothes, doing everything to avoid the inevitable conversation that they both knew they needed to have.

James, because of fear, and Lily, surprisingly, because of the same, though their reasons were quite different.

**If only you realized, Lily.**

Lily pretended she was asleep, forcing her mind shut.

She heard him sigh (wistfully?) and waited until she heard his breathing get more even. When she finally heard his soft snore, and opened her eyes to see him peacefully asleep... only then did she allow her mind to wander.

No matter what she had told herself earlier, being so close to him today had befuddled her senses completely. She didn't know what to think anymore. Once sure that she loathed him, she now wondered how they had gotten to where they were right now.

She didn't hate him, of course. They'd even been friends ever since Christmas last year. But her relationship with him wasn't so easy. It never had been. And it probably never would.

But, she she drifted off to sleep, she wondered why she didn't seem to mind it anymore.

_I think I do, James._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: You know, I just realized that in a few years I'd probably look at this and laugh. Oh, wait, maybe I'll do that even now. -_-**

**I'm really really sorry, you guys. I know it's been months but I only started writing day before and, well, here it is.**

**Tell me what you think, if you can spare a minute. :) And there's no point putting this on alert if you can't, because without feedback, no one is really motivated to write. So if you can tell me what you think of it, I'll be really glad.**

**Cheers,  
>RainHolly<strong>


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